


Love Potion

by ali3nb0y



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Drug Use, F/M, Gay, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:13:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24539803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ali3nb0y/pseuds/ali3nb0y
Summary: The recently engaged Sasuke realized he had slowly fallen out of love with his fiance. Despite his diminishing feelings, he still really valued his relationship, and hated the idea of breaking it off and cancelling the upcoming wedding. In order to try to fix things and return to “normal”, he seeks out a dealer for a love potion, one that is supposed to make him fall in love with the person he is most attracted to. But when he meets the handsome blond dealer, Naruto, and later drinks the love potion, he realizes his newfound love is not for his fiance, Sakura.(This is a SasuNaru fic, Not a SasuSaku fic)
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Rock Lee, Uchiha Itachi/Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 48
Kudos: 126





	1. Chapter 1

Sasuke sighed, slinging his feet over the side of the bed silently. He rose, being sure not to awake the pink-haired woman sleeping next to him. It was only 5:30, and his alarm wasn’t scheduled to go off until 6:00, but he hadn’t slept well that night. In fact, he hadn’t slept well in over a week. He had tossed and turned in bed all night, trying to push away intrusive thoughts. Eventually, when the sounds of the world awakening outside seeped in through the window, he gave up trying to fall asleep.

He left his fiance in bed and made his way to the bathroom, leaning over the counter to stare at his face. He could see slight dark circles under his eyes, making his already pale face look a bit hollow. Chuckling silently, he thought of his brother who was usually the one to have such bags under his eyes. Normally Sasuke was able to manage his stress a little better, enough to keep his face looking pristine, but these last few weeks had been weighing on him.

Since finishing graduate school last year and beginning his new job at the design firm, he thought his workload wouldn’t be the worst since he no longer had homework and studying to do. But in reality, he had been hired at the architectural firm and very quickly advanced to be placed at the head of a large project. He knew he was good at what he did and that he possessed strong leadership skills, but no one had expected Sasuke to advance so quickly. Such a promotion came with a nice pay raise, but it also came with a heavy workload. Lately he had been going into the office early and staying late into the evening.

After finishing grad school, Sasuke had finally worked up the balls to propose to his girlfriend of almost five years, Sakura. The two had met their freshman year of undergrad, and Sakura had quickly taken a liking to Sasuke, making a point to worm her way into his friend group. He had thought she was a bit nosy and annoying at first, but once he started to get to know her, he actually really liked her. The two started dating during the middle of their sophomore year, and eventually Sasuke found himself falling in love. She even moved in with him their senior year, and they spent most of their time together.

However, grad school was a bit of a different story. Sasuke was an architecture and business major, and planned to continue his studies. Sakura on the other hand was planning on becoming a doctor, and had been accepted into medical school after graduating. Their schools were both in California, but there was now a two hour drive separating them. Plus, they both had a significantly higher workload than they ever used to. But they loved each other, and they made it work, each taking turns to drive to the other on the weekends and holidays.

He had known from a very young age that he wanted to get married and have children. This was what Sasuke was told was to be his goal in life, after completing college and getting a respectable, high paying job. He never thought of doing anything different. That was his older brother’s plan for life as well, and so far it seemed to be working well. Although, Itachi was so engrossed in his work in radiology that he hadn’t gotten around to the marriage part, or even the girlfriend part, but he still had time at 28.

Sasuke was only 23, having started college a year younger than most of his peers since he had skipped a grade in elementary school. Several months ago, he completed grad school, had a loving girlfriend, and had recently accepted a job offer in the city where she attended med school, so he figured, why not propose? Sakura had gladly accepted, and the two moved in together shortly after. Life seemed perfect.

But life slowly got less perfect. Living together their senior year of college had been fine, they had two other roommates to hang out and split the rent with, and they shared the same large friend group. They were adults now though, actual adults with adult responsibilities. Sasuke had started his new job at the design firm where he spent most of his time, and Sakura worked at the hospital when she wasn't taking classes, leaving the two with very little time to spend together.

Sakura’s temper had begun to flare a lot more recently, likely due to stress. She got upset with Sasuke over small things, and he got upset back. They were going to sleep angry more frequently than not, but they still managed to always work things out. They loved each other, and wanted to be happy, especially with a wedding coming up in five months.

Sasuke was trying, he really was, but what his mind always drifted to in the late hours of the night was that he no longer felt the passion that he used to feel for his fiance. He hated himself for it. Not only would it break Sakura’s heart to ever break up with her, but it would be humiliating to admit to his father that he was calling off the wedding. Plus, it wasn’t like he didn’t want to be with her anymore, he really did. He just couldn’t help but feel like things weren’t the same, his feelings weren’t the same.

Grappling with the same thoughts of stress over work and anger at himself for losing interest in the one person that really mattered to him, he splashed water over his face before turning the shower on. Stepping under the hot stream, he bent his head down to soak his black hair. He always tried to take relatively short showers to conserve water, but also to keep away from his own thoughts. Sasuke had been stubborn his whole life about confronting his emotions, but it wasn’t that unusual. His brother and his father were the same way.

After his shower, he quickly shaved and styled his hair. By the time he emerged with a towel around his waist, it was 5:59. Shit he thought. He forgot to turn off his alarm before getting out of bed. Not wanting to wake Sakura, he quietly ran to the other side of the bed, pressing the button to switch off his alarm just in time.

Despite his efforts, Sakura began to stir in bed. He hated waking her before her own alarm since she was always so exhausted from school and work. She needed all the sleep she could get, which wasn’t much. Sasuke walked over to her as she sat up in bed, giving her a quick kiss on the lips before making his way over to the dresser to find clothes for the day.

“You’re up early, couldn’t sleep again?” she said, sounding concerned. She knew he had been very restless lately, and felt bad that she couldn’t do anything more to help.

“Just woke up a little before my alarm. I’m heading in early today, I have a lot to catch up on.” Sasuke pulled on black slacks and a white button up dress shirt. Since his promotion, he felt pressure to dress nicer at work, even though it was a generally more laid back environment for a workplace. Most of his coworkers wore dress shirts or sweaters, but typically no ties or suit coats. Sasuke didn’t go so far as to put on a fancy jacket, but he did tie a navy blue tie around his neck before tucking his shirt into his belt.

“Alright, well I have a shift at the hospital after classes today, so I probably won’t be home till late. You don’t have to wait up for me, I know you need your sleep,” Sakura said, getting out of bed. She walked over to Sasuke, grabbing his tie and pulling him in for a deeper kiss.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you last night,” she said. “I know it’s not your fault that you have to stay late on my few evenings off. I’m sure we’ll get better at coordinating our schedules.” She smiled up at him, giving him another peck on the lips.

“You’re right, it’ll get better.” Sasuke pulled back to put on his socks and shoes. He grabbed his wallet and watch off the dresser and walked out of the bedroom, not hearing the sigh that left his fiance’s lips. Snatching his keys from the hook by the front door of their apartment, he made his way down to his car in the parking garage. It wasn’t anything particularly fancy, but it was nice. He had bought it before being hired at his fancy new job, and hadn’t yet saved up enough for a new car.

Even though his parents were well off, helping the two brothers pay for college, they did not spoil their children. Sasuke had worked all throughout college and paid for his own housing and his own car. He was very appreciative however that he didn’t have a pile of student loans. He knew Sakura was not in a similar position. Her ambitions of becoming a neurosurgeon were well achievable with her capabilities and knack for medicine, but the education came with a large price tag. Sasuke had intended to start helping her slowly pay back those loans now that they were engaged and he was in a stable position.

When he arrived at work, he went straight to his office. It was early and there weren’t many people in the building. He preferred coming in early like this because it gave him a chance to get some good work done before he had to deal with talking to people and holding meetings.

Surprisingly, at 6:50 he heard a knock on his door. He looked up to see his coworker, Suigetsu, peering in the window. He motioned for the man to come in. Suigetsu was one of the few people he worked with that he would actually call his friend. He wasn’t sure how that came to be, since the slightly older man could be a little loud and obnoxious sometimes, but the two had been hired at the same time, making it easy to get to know each other.

“Heyyy Sasuke! You’re here early, having girlfriend troubles again?” Suigetsu said, his voice far too loud for this early in the morning.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “She’s not my girlfriend, she’s my fiance. And we’re fine.” He had disclosed a small portion of his relationship issues to his friend, knowing that he would blow things out of proportion if he exposed too much.

“Come on, I know that look. What, did she yell at you again? The way you act, it seems like you don’t even like her. Why are you even together, man?”

Sasuke blinked. He had wondered that himself lately. Why was he still with Sakura if he no longer felt like he loved her? Was it out of obligation? Was it because he didn’t want to disappoint her? Or his father?

There were so many feelings that he knew he was suppressing. He knew he should just address them, but he couldn’t. He wanted to find some other way.

“I just wish it could be like it was when we first started dating,” Sasuke sighed.

“Hey, I feel you man. That shit’s intoxicating when you first fall in love with someone. Why don’t you just try a love potion? I know a guy,” Suigetsu replied, not even the slightest bit ashamed of suggesting illegal magic drugs to someone who was technically his superior.

Sasuke frowned. He’d done some drugs in college, mostly weed, but on one occasion his friends had convinced him to delve into the realm of magic potions. He honestly didn’t know much about them, just knew that they were a subset of illegal drugs that were classified as “magic” because of their unusual outcomes. He figured his brother would know a bit more about them since he worked in medicine.

He had never intended on trying any magic potions or drugs since college, since his last experience hadn’t been ideal. His friends had convinced him to take some potion, telling him it would help with school. In actuality, after drinking the potion, he sprouted a very long beard and mustache combo that continued to grow and couldn’t be cut or shaved for a week. Luckily it had been spring break and he hadn’t had to go to class with the ridiculous facial hair, but since that mostly innocent incident, he had avoided magic potions altogether.

“How would a love potion help me? I already love Sakura, we’re getting married after all.”

“Well, a lot of people turn to love potions just to kinda rekindle the flame. They’re called love potions but I suppose they’re more like lust potions. They just make you even more infatuated with the person you’re the most attracted to,” Suigetsu explained.

“I’m fine. I don’t need to resort to illegal activities to fix my relationship. I’m an adult, I can figure it out on my own,” Sasuke replied, shaking his head at his friend.

“Okay Mr. Uchiha, whatever you say. I’ll just leave you with this, just in case.” Suigetsu pulled a pen out of the cup on Sasuke’s desk and grabbed a business card from the little box by his computer. Flipping the card over to the blank side, Suigetsu began to jot down a name and phone number before sliding the card over to Sasuke, who let it sit on the desk in front of him.

“Well, off to work!” Suigetsu said happily, leaving the office and closing the door behind him.

Sasuke looked down at the card that his coworker had left. The name simply said “Kabuto”, and there was a phone number written beneath it. Sasuke scoffed, as if he’d ever need to turn to drugs to help him. He knew things with Sakura were a bit rockier than he’d like to admit, but they weren’t that bad, were they?

Still, he couldn’t help but wonder. The two hadn’t had sex in almost a month. They were both just too busy or too exhausted for it. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to just get his libido back. Fixing their sex life definitely could be a good start to fixing other things. He pocketed the business card, and promptly forgot about it as he started on his work for the day.

When he finally left the office, it was 7:00. He had clocked a 12 hour work day, and he was tired, but not as tired as some days when he came home from work. The project they were currently working on required a lot of coordinating. Sasuke had scheduled a meeting with the client for earlier that day, but he received a phone call a few hours beforehand asking to reschedule. Even though it pushed back their deadline to have to reschedule like that, it left Sasuke feeling less stressed after not having to meet with the client, who tended to refuse to listen to the experts on what would actually work when planning.

He arrived home to an unsurprisingly empty apartment. Remembering that Sakura would be home late, he went directly to the bedroom to change out of his work clothes and into a t-shirt and some sweatpants.

Making his way to the kitchen, he contemplated what he wanted for dinner. He generally tried to eat as healthy as he could, but he had to admit that he was craving takeout tonight. He grabbed his phone and dialed his brother’s number, hoping that he would be free to have dinner tonight. The two hadn’t seen each other in a while, and Sasuke did enjoy having dinner with him from time to time.

“Hello?” Itachi picked up the phone.

“Hey, ‘Tachi, Sakura is working late tonight, want to have dinner?” he asked. He heard a pause, and shuffling from the other side of the phone.

“Uh, yeah, sure Sasuke. I can be there in half an hour,” Itachi replied. He sounded distracted, but agreed nonetheless, so Sasuke didn’t say anything about it.

“Okay, cool. I’ll order food. See you then,” he said, before hanging up. His phone conversations with Itachi were always quick since his brother always seemed to be so busy. He didn’t mind though. Whenever they got around to eating together once or twice a month, they were able to catch up and talk easier.

He dialed another number and ordered food to be delivered for the two of them. It wasn’t often that he got takeout since he generally did like to cook. He wasn’t even sure why he was ordering it now, it was one of the things Sakura was never happy about. It always made the fridge smell terrible for days, she said. She was a vegetarian, and had tried to convert Sasuke. He mostly followed her vegetarian diet, but not always, and when he didn’t it bothered her. He figured he’d just make Itachi take home any leftovers they had so Sakura wouldn’t notice.

Itachi and the food arrived at the same time. Sasuke greeted Itachi briefly before paying the delivery driver. The two went inside and sat down at the kitchen table, opening up the food. They both chatted about work for the most part. Itachi generally refrained from discussing his personal life, but he did ask about Sasuke’s.

“So how is Sakura?” he asked. He knew that she and Sasuke had been having some relationship problems, but Sasuke was as emotionally stunted as his brother and didn’t usually reveal much.

“She’s fine. She’s at work now.”

“I see. How are you two doing? I know you had a few fights…” Itachi started. Sasuke wasn’t sure where he got this information since he hadn’t actually told Itachi directly, but he knew his brother was clever and could find out just about any information he wanted.

“We’re doing fine,” Sasuke replied. Itachi just nodded and continued eating.

A thought suddenly popped into Sasuke’s head. He had pushed the idea of a love potion into the back of his mind for most of the day, but now that he wasn’t actively working, it resurfaced. He knew he couldn’t just outright ask about a love potion when Itachi had just been prodding about his relationship, but he wanted to see what his brother knew.

“What do you know about magic potions?” Sasuke asked, trying to make the question seem completely unrelated.

Itachi looked up and smirked. “Why do you ask?”

“A coworker said he tried one, and I was curious. I don’t want him getting the company into a bunch of trouble,” Sasuke lied easily.

“Ah. Well, I’ll be honest, I don’t know all that much about them. There’s a very wide variety of potions out there that do wildly different things to people. Even though many of them wouldn’t be considered bad at all, the whole lot of them are illegal because the mechanism by which they affect results is still unknown to researchers. They don’t work like other illegal drugs, like amphetamines, or hallucinogens, or anything else.

“Despite being illegal, there is a hefty black market for them. There are a number of types of potions I know that are common, some much worse than others. Let’s see, there’s plenty that change your appearance, there’s different potions that change your relationship with someone, to make them love or hate you, and there are also potions that cause harm to people, causing certain ailments or even death.” Itachi took another bite, having finished his explanation.

Sasuke nodded, not knowing where to take the conversation from here.

“You say you are concerned about a coworker obtaining a magic potion. Do you know which one?” Itachi asked, clearly curious about why Sasuke brought this up in the first place.

“He said he was looking to make another coworker fall for him. I would hate for there to be any workplace drama that would interfere with our project schedule,” Sasuke said matter-of-factly. He made direct eye contact with Itachi for a second to try to show that he was telling the truth. He was typically quite good at standing his ground when lying, but sometimes his brother could still see through him.

“I see. So you mean a love potion.” Itachi looked down and took another bite, a knowing look growing on his face.

“Yeah, I guess,” Sasuke said.

“I believe there are two types of love potions. One that is intended to make another person fall in love, and one to make yourself fall in love. Although love is a strong word for it. From what I remember, it mostly just increases attraction and one’s sex drive. How curious. I do hope your coworker is responsible with such a potion, they can easily go wrong,” Itachi smirked.

Sasuke’s stomach dropped as he realized his brother knew exactly what he was up to. But he wasn’t scolding him, or telling him to stay away from magic, so he would just leave it at that. He had gotten enough information out of him for now.

The two brothers finished eating, and despite trying, Sasuke couldn’t convince Itachi to take home the leftovers. He put them in the fridge, mentally preparing himself for the potential fight it would cause when Sakura got home from work. She had a pretty short temper when she returned from such long shifts.

Sasuke sat down in front of the television and turned on the news, only half paying attention. He thought about what his brother had said, how he could use a love potion on himself, or on Sakura. Or both, he supposed. He didn’t like the idea of giving Sakura something without telling her, it felt wrong. He knew that he was considering the idea, but he would only ever take something himself and hope that Sakura opened up in response.

He looked at the clock, realizing it was past 9:00. That wasn’t actually very late, but he was tired nonetheless. He knew Sakura wouldn’t be home till after midnight and that he probably wouldn’t be able to stay awake till then.

Walking to his bedroom, he reached into the laundry hamper to find the pants he had worn that day. He pulled out the card that Suigetsu had given him and stared at it. He wondered who this Kabuto person could be, and if he was someone to be trusted.

He would hate to give in and buy a love potion, only for it to be something else entirely. But he did trust Suigetsu, and figured that if his friend had bought from this guy, then Sasuke could probably trust him as well.

“Fuck it,” Sasuke said. He grabbed his phone and typed the number. Then he wondered if it would be better to text. Drug dealers might not answer calls from numbers they don’t know. He certainly didn’t, but he had know idea how drug dealers behaved. Or would this guy only have some burner phone like he saw in the tv shows that couldn’t receive texts?

He settled for just texting the number instead of calling, not knowing what he would say if the guy actually picked up the phone.

_Hi, my name is Sasuke, my friend Suigetsu gave me this number saying I could contact you to get a love potion._

Sasuke cringed at the text, but sent it anyway. He had never been good at texting people. He was good at socializing with people in person, and even over email, but not over text. Especially not when texting drug dealers, which he’d never actually done before.

He silenced and locked his phone before getting ready for bed, not wanting the guy to respond and have Sakura see it on some off chance while he was asleep. With that, he went to bed, falling asleep surprisingly quickly. He didn’t hear when his fiance came home several hours later, or when she cursed at the smell of takeout in the kitchen, or when she happily sent a goodnight text with a smiley face to her coworker, thanking him for buying her dinner that evening.

***

Sasuke awoke the next morning around 5:00. Sakura was fast asleep next to him. He arose and proceeded with his normal morning routine, this time remembering to turn off his alarm so he wouldn’t scramble to do so at the last minute.

Only after he sat down to eat a quick breakfast did he remember the text he had sent last night. He pulled out his phone and opened it, ignoring several email notifications to open his texts. A red number one on the messages app indicated that he’d received one text over the night, and he opened it to find that it was, in fact, from that Kabuto guy who he had messaged. The time stamp read 4:15 am.

_Sasuke, I can certainly help you out with that problem. I might even be able to give you a friends and family discount since you seem to be friends with Suigetsu. Meet me at 9pm tonight in the parking lot behind the AMC theater on 4th._

Sasuke stared at the message, hardly believing what he had done. He was usually so much more responsible and level headed than this. Sure doing drugs that your friends had was one thing, but meeting with a dealer and buying them yourself was completely different.

He knew in the back of his mind that he was going to go through with this, but he still tried to talk himself out of it. Eventually, he gave in and texted back.

_Alright, see you there._

He had no clue how much it would cost, but he didn’t want to text the guy more than he had to. In fact, any evidence of these texts was incriminating. He quickly deleted them and got ready for work, planning on stopping at the bank afterwards to withdraw some cash just in case he didn’t have enough on him.

His work day was long and stressful and full of paperwork. Luckily he was able to hold a very productive meeting with his design team and cover a lot of ground, so he walked out of work at 8:00 feeling pleased with himself. He knew it was late, and figured Sakura would be home already, likely studying. She didn’t have a late shift tonight.

Knowing this, Sasuke couldn't go home before meeting with Kabuto in an hour because he would have no excuse for going out again. He had stopped at the bank on his lunch break, knowing he’d be working pretty late into the evening. He withdrew $300, even though he thought anything higher than $100 would be ridiculous.

Sasuke decided to just go for a drive. He hadn’t done that in a long time, even though he loved how cathartic it could feel to have the windows down and the music up. Not that he ever sang along, but when he was alone he could actually sometimes get into the music, drumming his thumbs on the wheel while he sped down the highway.

He drove around for half an hour, blocking out any thoughts or regrets he had about what he was about to do. Sasuke wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be early to this kind of thing, but he guessed it was better than being late, so he drove over to the theater, arriving at about 8:45. Parking in the back parking lot where he had been instructed, he looked around and saw several other cars. This was the employee lot, but the theater wasn’t huge and there couldn’t be that many people working at this time on a wednesday night.

He stayed in his car, wondering why he would be told to come to such a public place for a drug deal. Sasuke began to get second thoughts. He contemplated leaving when he saw a flash of blond hair step out of a vehicle several spots away from him. Looking over, he saw that there was another figure in the driver's seat of the car, a man with silver hair and round glasses, but the man didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving the car.

A memory flashed in Sasuke’s mind as he looked back over to the familiar blond haired boy. Naruto? Sasuke squinted to get a better look, realizing this man looked very similar to a boy he had gone to high school with. Naruto, he had been loud and obnoxious, and had been a grade behind Sasuke.

He also remembered finding Naruto very attractive in high school, despite his annoying personality. Sasuke hadn’t been open to other people about his sexuality, but he had no personal qualms with it either. He was bisexual, and had found a number of guys attractive in his life. He’d even hooked up with a few guys in high school and college (secretly of course) before he started dating Sakura, but he’d never had a serious relationship with another man.

Something about Naruto always interested Sasuke in high school for some reason. They’d been on the track team together for three years, but never interacted all that much beyond that. Naruto had been rather open about his sexuality back then, and had been dating another kid from their school, Sai, when Sasuke graduated.

Sasuke never liked Sai, and would often make smartass remarks toward him, and even toward Naruto sometimes at practice. He and Naruto always had some kind of friendly (or maybe unfriendly) competition going. He also remembered the one time they accidentally… kissed… in the locker room during Sasuke’s junior year; Naruto had tripped, it was no big deal. Soon after that incident, Naruto was in a relationship with Sai, so Sasuke promptly pushed away any feelings that might have stirred from the incident. He had forgotten about the boy since then.

Seeing him now was strange. He wondered if he worked at the theater. 8:47pm seemed like a pretty weird time to start a shift at a movie theater, but what would he know? Naruto stood next to the car that he had just gotten out of, taking to the other man through the window. Sasuke watched, and decided that Naruto had only gotten more attractive since high school. His gaze traveled down from his eyes to his lips, remembering how they felt against his for a brief moment all those years ago. It was the first time he’d ever kissed a boy, and he’d be lying if he said it didn’t have a lasting impact on him.

But since he and Naruto never dated or even did anything other than kiss once, it seemed silly to be thinking about him this way. Especially when he was here to buy a love potion so that he could fuck his fiance (for lack of a better expression). Despite telling himself to pull it together and stop checking out the man he hadn’t seen in so long, his eyes continued to drift, looking at his tan, toned arms under his orange t-shirt. He had gotten more muscular, and a bit taller too.

He snapped out of it when he saw the driver hand the blond a paper bag. Sasuke realized what was happening. The man in the car must be Kabuto, and Naruto must be working with him. Why else would they be here in this parking lot if they didn’t work here? Against everything he’d ever learned, Sasuke unbuckled his seatbelt and exited the car, making quick strides to walk over to Naruto.

The blond looked up and scrunched his nose at him, nonchalantly pulling both his hands behind his back to hide the paper sack. Now that Sasuke was out of the car, he had no idea what he was doing. He stood there, staring at Naruto.

“Wait, Sasuke?” Naruto said, recognition creeping across his face, before his expression turned back to one of confusion.

“You don’t work here… why are you here?” he asked.

“I could ask you the same thing, Uzumaki,” Sasuke retorted, immediately reverting back to the way he used to talk to the other back in high school.

Naruto suddenly looked uneasy, looking over at Kabuto who was still in the car with the window down, watching their whole interaction.

“I see you two know each other already. That makes this easier,” Kabuto said. Sasuke thought maybe the other man would step out of the car now, but he stayed put, still speaking through the window to the both of them.

“Yeah, old acquaintance I guess. Look, I want to know what I’m getting into before I hand over any money,” Sasuke said deadpan, wanting to get this conversation over quickly so he could leave without running into trouble. This meeting location seemed too public, and it was getting late. Sakura would be wondering where he was.

“Eager aren’t we. What exactly are you looking for?” Kabuto questioned, smirking. Sasuke already didn’t like the guy, but he supposed it was a fair question.

“Something for me to take, not anyone else.”

“Ah, yes we have just the mix for you, don’t we Naruto. Why don’t you explain to Sasuke how it works,” Kabuto said, looking over at the blond. Sasuke didn’t like the way he looked at the other boy like Naruto was his prey. Clearly Kabuto was much older than Naruto, maybe even older than Itachi. Naruto was about Sasuke’s age.

“Okay, well it seems what you’re looking for is a bottle of Ego, as it’s called.” Naruto reached into the paper bag he was holding and procured a small glass bottle, no larger than an individual liquor bottle you’d sometimes get on a plane. The glass was tinted a dark blue, so Sasuke couldn’t see what color the liquid inside was.

“This is 50 mililiters, or one dose. It doesn’t work like in the movies, you can’t just go home and look at a picture of someone and then fall in love with that person. The chemicals will enter your brain and amplify your feelings of attraction towards whoever you are most attracted to when you drink it. Basically it’ll up your sex drive, but only for that one person. The effects last about two to three weeks. You could say it's a bit like a steroid in some ways, but it's magic class,” Naruto explained easily.

Sasuke couldn’t believe how normally Naruto spoke about this, and how much he seemed to know. Is this what happened to him after high school? Naruto had never been the best at school, but Sasuke never imagined him getting into dealing. And yet, something about his confidence when he spoke was so… alluring. Sasuke ignored it.

He stepped closer toward Naruto and held out his hand, taking the bottle of mysterious liquid from the blond. As he did this, he got a closer look at Naruto’s face and realized there were new scars on his cheeks that definitely weren’t there in high school. There were three on each cheek, and they looked almost like whiskers on a cat or something. Sasuke frowned, wondering what had happened, what Naruto had gotten himself into. Despite these new scars, his face was still as youthful and gorgeous as it had been all those years ago when Sasuke had last seen him. His blue eyes seemed a little duller though.

When Sasuke realized Naruto had noticed him staring, he looked down quickly at the bottle in his hands, but not before noticing a slight blush creep onto the other boy’s cheeks. He examined the bottle, which had a label with a cheesy picture of a heart on one side and a rather explicit image of a naked woman on the other side. There were no warnings or ingredients or brand names or anything else anywhere to be found.

“So how do I know this is the real deal?” Sasuke asked, genuinely worried that he would be given something tainted that could fuck him up, or simply not work.

“Trust me, this is exactly what you’re looking for. I can assure you, everything I sell is top quality. I’ve known your friend Suigetsu for many years now, and he has never had any problems, so you have nothing to worry about,” Kabuto said. Sasuke knew he was right, that Suigetsu wouldn’t send him to someone sketchy, but he still didn’t trust Kabuto’s tone.

Sasuke looked over to Naruto, who had been looking back and forth between Sasuke and Kabuto, who seemed to be his boss. Naruto nodded slightly, affirming to Sasuke that he could trust what he had been given.

“How much?” Sasuke asked bluntly.

“Well, for you, dear Sasuke, why don't we call it $120,” Kabuto replied.

Sasuke frowned, but pulled out his wallet. This seemed like a lot of money, and he had no idea how big this discount he was getting was. Relenting, he pulled out six twenty dollar bills and handed them over to Naruto, giving the boy one last look before walking briskly back to his own car with the bottle. He quickly put his car into gear and left before giving the pair of dealers another look.

 _That was such a strange interaction_ , Sasuke thought. It hadn’t been anything like the drug deals he’d seen on tv. He’d never been around when any of his friends from college bought weed, so he didn’t even know what that was truly like. Seeing Naruto was also a pretty weird blast from the past that he had not expected in the least.

He drove home, a thousand thoughts racing around in his head. Was Sakura the person he was the most attracted to? Surely she was, she was his fiance, he’d loved her for years. There was no way he was attracted to anyone more than her, despite all the fights they’d had. Certainly he found her more attractive than anyone else in his life, none of his friends or coworkers came anywhere near attracting Sasuke’s attention. The only person that had even piqued his interest besides Sakura was Naruto that night, but that was just a fluke. He obviously liked his own fiance more than some guy he’d kinda liked in high school.

When he pulled into the parking garage, he sat in his car for several minutes, not leaving. He stared down at the blue bottle. There was no way he could bring this inside, Sakura would find it. He’d have to deal with enough questioning when he went upstairs anyway about why he was out so late, he didn’t need to explain why he was buying illicit substances as well. She wouldn’t understand why he was doing it.

He uncapped the bottle and took a deep breath, before taking a long swig, downing it all before he could have any second thoughts. He’d never been one to be cowardly about such a situation. The liquid was thick like medicine, but tasted kinda like a rumchata.

Sasuke realized that he never found out how long it would take to start working. He figured it obviously wasn’t right away, but maybe by the time he woke up in the morning it would begin to take effect? He sighed and got out of his car, dumping the bottle in a trash can before taking the stairs up to their second floor apartment.

It was almost 9:30, and Sasuke knew Sakura wouldn’t believe that he was working this late. He tried to think of what he would say to her when she questioned him. He opened the door to find a surprisingly quiet apartment. Usually when Sakura was studying, she played some quiet music or left the tv on as background noise. Surely she wouldn’t be in bed yet either, it was late but not that late.

Sasuke walked in and hung up his keys. He saw a note on the kitchen counter that Sakura had clearly left for him.

_Sasuke, I’m going out for the night with some friends, be back late. Please clean out the fridge when you get home, it reeks now._  
_< 3 Sakura_

He rolled his eyes at her comment about the fridge, even though he knew it was coming at some point. He guessed it was better than enduring it in person. Sasuke loved Sakura, but she sure did know how to nag him sometimes. He supposed they really should talk more about their problems, but Sasuke had never been good at talking about himself or his feelings.

It was a little strange, however, that she was going out with friends on a wednesday night. Usually wednesdays and thursdays were the days she took to study the most since she often had friday quizzes or exams. He shrugged, guessing that she must just not have any big assignments due at the end of the week and wanted to take her one chance to go out and have fun. It’s not like Sasuke had time to do that with her anymore.

The two used to go out all the time in undergrad, going to bars or parties with friends. Not that parties were exactly Sasuke’s scene, but he managed to enjoy them with Sakura there to help him loosen up a bit. As life got busier though, he had less and less time to go out with her. Any time they spent together was spent at home. He didn’t blame her for wanting to go out. He really hoped this potion helped in some way, he really did still care about her and wanted to make things work even though he’d had very mixed feelings lately.

Sasuke changed into more comfortable clothes, and got to work cleaning out the fridge. He didn’t like being bossed around, but sometimes Sakura could be so demanding that even he relented to her. He supposed this is what was helping her to be so successful in school, her assertiveness. The same characteristic in Sasuke had landed him his promotion. Sometimes they just clashed a bit too much.

For a moment, Sasuke wondered what life would have been like if he had ended up with someone different. Someone who could be loud but confident. Someone incredibly friendly, someone who knew how to put a smile on almost everyone’s face. Someone with blond hair and blue eyes…

Wait a minute. Sasuke was thinking about Naruto again. Seeing him today really was strange. Sure he’d maybe kinda liked the boy in high school, but he’d never actually considered them ever being together. Why was he thinking about that now? He was supposed to be thinking about Sakura, supposed to be becoming rapidly more attracted to her. The potion must not have taken effect yet. He supposed it was too early, it had only been like an hour.

He finished cleaning and headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. It had been a long day, and he didn’t have the energy to wait up for Sakura. Hopefully by tomorrow evening, the potion would kick in and he’d be eager to give her plenty of attention.

Sasuke stripped down to his boxers and climbed under the covers, turning off the lamp on his bedside table. He laid there for several minutes, turning over the events of the day in his mind before slowly drifting off into a deep and well needed sleep.

***

_“Fuck,” Sasuke breathed, sweat dripping down his forehead. He continued to move his body in conjunction with the one beneath him. He felt the body underneath him jolt with pleasure as he thrust his hips forward again and again._

_“S-Sasuke… don’t stop, I’m so close,” the voice below him moaned, begging for more. Who was Sasuke to deny. He quickened his movements, himself getting closer and closer to the edge. He hadn’t had sex this good in a long time, and he wasn’t sure he could last much longer._

_Without warning, moans filled the air as the two climaxed, one after the other. Sasuke collapsed down on the bed, panting._

_“Wow…” he said, breathlessly. He looked over to see a head of blond hair and blue eyes looking back at him._

Sasuke awoke suddenly from his dream, sitting upright. Looking down, he realized his dream about his high school acquaintance had left him more than slightly aroused. He looked over to see his fiance sleeping peacefully beside him, and closed his eyes in realization.

“Fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had a dream about this idea so I had to write it, hope you enjoy :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got so excited about the first chapter that I immediately wrote the second one lol. This one's a bit more of a normal length. The rest of the chapters will probably be closer to this length rather than the ridiculous 7k that the first one was. I've got a direction with this fic, I promise! Anyway, here's chapter 2, hope you enjoy!

_“Fuck,” Sasuke breathed, sweat dripping down his forehead. He continued to move his body in conjunction with the one beneath him. He felt the body underneath him jolt with pleasure as he thrust his hips forward again and again._

_“S-Sasuke… don’t stop, I’m so close,” the voice below him moaned, begging for more. Who was Sasuke to deny. He quickened his movements, himself getting closer and closer to the edge. He hadn’t had sex this good in a long time, and he wasn’t sure he could last much longer._

_Without warning, moans filled the air as the two climaxed, one after the other. Sasuke collapsed down on the bed, panting._

_“Wow…” he said, breathlessly. He looked over to see a head of blond hair and blue eyes looking back at him._

Sasuke awoke suddenly from his dream, sitting upright. Looking down, he realized his dream about his high school acquaintance had left him more than slightly aroused. He looked over to see his fiance sleeping peacefully beside him, and closed his eyes in realization.

“Fuck.”

How could he have been so stupid as to buy a love potion, had he really been that desperate to save his relationship? He should have known that it wouldn’t work, what with his recent decrease in attraction toward Sakura.

He should have listened more carefully to his brother and Naruto when they’d both told him that the drug would only work on the person he was the most attracted to when he drank it. He’d been foolish to drink it last night, right after seeing Naruto for the first time in years.

Now here he was, in bed with his fiance, but his mind swimming with images of the blond drug dealer. It wasn’t just that he seemed to be wildly more attracted to Naruto than ever before, it also seemed that he was even less attracted to Sakura than the previous day.

Sasuke glanced over at the sleeping woman. He used to see her in this state and almost swoon (internally of course) over how beautiful she was. Usually he’d lean over and kiss her, or stroke her hair, but he felt no urge to do so now. In fact, he felt no desire whatsoever to touch her or be intimate with her. Not that he was disgusted by her at all, he simply felt indifferent.

This startled Sasuke. He had been grappling with his feelings for weeks now, but to suddenly not feel anything for his fiance was different. It was almost scary in a way. Dating Sakura had always been a breeze, and they usually got along so well. He never used to have any worries about their relationship. Falling out of love wasn’t something he’d ever considered. And now here he was, facing that very predicament. He didn’t love Sakura anymore.

 _Surely it must just be the drug_ , Sasuke thought. He could just pretend until it wore off and things could go back to normal. He would never buy another magic potion again. All Sasuke had to do was ignore the budding feelings that were beginning to occupy his mind for a certain someone with bright golden hair and eyes bluer than the ocean.

This should be easy. Naruto was a drug dealer, and as long as Sasuke simply didn’t buy anymore drugs, he wouldn’t even have the opportunity to see him again. Maybe he’d be able to get through the next few weeks with just a couple unfortunately erotic dreams, and then he’d forget about the other man.

It’s not like Sasuke would ever even consider seeking out Naruto. Initiating any sort of intimate contact would be cheating, and Sasuke was not a cheater. Plus, he’d likely have to go through Kabuto if he wanted to even get into contact with Naruto, and he had no interest in talking to that guy again.

It’ll be fine. It’ll all be fine. He’ll just have a weird month, and then he could marry his fiance and have a normal life like his father had wished. He just hoped Sakura wouldn’t notice. With how little the two had been interacting lately, he figured it couldn’t be that big of a problem.

Sasuke got out of bed. It was early, too early even for Sasuke to justify going to work, so he showered and made himself a breakfast of eggs with tomatoes and mushrooms. Perhaps he’d go to the gym before heading to the office. Working out often helped distract him, and he did try to stay in good shape.

He grabbed his gym bag and packed a set of work clothes, not intending to stop back at his apartment. Grabbing his phone, he sent a quick text to Sakura, letting her know where he was going in case she woke up early and got worried. He figured he might as well keep trying, even while the stupid drug was in effect and he felt no real attraction toward her. It would make things easier once the potion wore off.

***

_Sasuke headed down to the locker room after his last class got out, stopping for a quick conversation about a party later that week that his friend was hosting. Sasuke always went to them, but didn’t drink nearly as much as any of his friends ever did. He wasn’t even a designated driver or anything like that. He just didn’t like getting drunk. People always acted like total idiots when they were drunk, and he had no intentions of jumping into a pool with all his clothes on, or belly flopping onto a ping pong table, or pretending to ride a broom like a witch in front of a big crowd._

_He entered the boy’s locker room and found his own locker which was in a corner near the back of the echoey room. They were organized alphabetically by surname, and he was towards the end. All of the after school sports at the school, including track practice, didn’t start for another 25 minutes, so he was one of only three guys in the locker room. He preferred to get there early so that he could change and get out onto the field to stretch without being disturbed._

_He stripped off the sweater and dark denim jeans he’d worn to school that day and replaced them with a white t-shirt and athletic shorts. As much as he loved running, he kinda hated the uniform, but it was better than getting his normal clothes all sweaty._

_Sitting down on the bench in between the rows of lockers, he began to lace up his shoes. The heavy locker room door slammed open, and he heard footsteps walking toward him._

_“Woo! I am pumped! Are you ready Kiba? I’m ready for practice! I feel like I could run for days!” Sasuke heard a loud voice, and then the slap of a high five a couple rows over. He didn’t bother looking up, knowing who it was._

_“Yeah you bet, Naruto! I have no clue where all your energy comes from but you sure know how to get me excited for practice,” Kiba returned, just as enthusiastically._

_Sasuke went back to tying his other shoe. He heard more footsteps walking toward him and saw blond hair out of the corner of his eye. It wasn’t unusual, Naruto’s locker was right next to his own since their last names both started with a U._

_He flinched when he felt a hand suddenly on his head, messing up his hair. He scowled at Naruto and shooed away the tan hand. The other boy knew Sasuke hated when people touched his hair, so he made a point of doing it often._

_“Hey Sasuke, you ready for practice? I bet I can run more laps than you today!” Naruto said, a large smile on his face. The blond opened his locker and began to pull his shirt off, revealing a surprisingly toned chest for a sophomore in high school. Sasuke looked away quickly so that he wouldn’t stare._

_“You wish,” Sasuke replied, before locking his locker and leaving the locker room to avoid any more conversation with Naruto._

_The track behind the school was mostly empty by the time he walked out there. It would be another ten minutes before the rest of the team and the coach showed up for practice. Sasuke sat down in the grass and began stretching his legs. He’d made the mistake before of not stretching and had been left with ridiculously sore calves for several days afterwards, so he always made a point of stretching plenty before running._

_Practice went by quickly, full of even more stretching and a couple laps around the track to warm up, and speed drills for the sprinters like Sasuke. Others like Naruto and Kiba focused on jumping and hurdles. The coach started off the season making everyone practice every exercise, but they had a meet next week, so now everyone was honing their individual skills._

_The coach dismissed the team, and Sasuke began walking back to the locker room so he could change when he felt a hand on his shoulder._

_“Hey Sasuke, bet I can run 8 laps faster than you!” Naruto almost shouted in Sasuke’s face, his smile so big it looked like it hurt his cheeks._

_“Please, you know I’d beat you at that any day. Besides, I can’t. I have to get home for my piano lesson,” Sasuke said, turning away from the blond. He really did need to get home, but he also knew that he probably wouldn’t be able to beat Naruto in running two miles. He was a sprinter, not a distance runner, and he knew Naruto had ridiculous stamina. The blond boy also did cross country, and was admittedly very good at it. The only races Sasuke ever agreed to were sprints because he knew that’s what he could win at._

_“Oh come on, it’s not like it would take that long, how about just four laps?” Naruto whined. He followed Sasuke in the direction of the school though._

_“It’s not like it's a 500m, it takes a little longer to do four whole laps and I don’t have that kind of time,” Sasuke said._

_“Ughhh finee!” Naruto continued to whine, bumping Sasuke’s shoulder slightly as the two made their way to the locker room._

_Sasuke went to the showers immediately, leaving the other behind to talk to their teammates. He hated going home sweaty, not that he sweat a ton, but any amount was enough to justify a shower._

_The other showers around him began to turn on as well as the rest of his teammates filed into the shower stalls. He finished before any of the others, wrapping a towel around his waist and heading back to his locker._

_Sasuke pulled on his clothes and turned to leave when he saw Naruto walking back from the showers. The boy was talking to someone behind him who was walking another direction, so Naruto wasn’t looking where he was going._

_In what seemed like slow motion, Sasuke watched as the boy, glistening and half naked from his shower, tripped over the bench and went flying forward toward Sasuke. Neither knew what to do with their arms. Naruto’s flew up to try to stop the impact and ended up wrapped around Sasuke’s neck, while Sasuke’s arms flew up in front of him to protect himself. Before he knew what was happening, Sasuke felt a pair of lips crushing against his. The last of Naruto’s momentum carried the blond forward, shoving Sasuke back against the locker bank and somehow deepening the kiss._

_For a second, neither moved. Sasuke surprisingly… didn’t mind it. Naruto’s lips were softer than Sasuke would’ve imagined, and his hands which he’d thrown in front of him were now touching Naruto’s bare chest. But it was over before he was able to take it all in. Naruto stepped back, unlatching himself from Sasuke._

_“Oh fuck! I’m sorry, I didn’t even mean to do that, I was talking to Kiba about the episode of Glee I watched last night and I wasn’t looking where I was going and then that stupid bench appeared out of nowhere just to trip me and send me flying into you,” Naruto sputtered, staring at Sasuke as if he was about to receive a beating or something._

_In that moment, Sasuke felt bad. Naruto was openly gay, and definitely received some flack for it from people at school, but usually he seemed so carefree. Now he seemed to be defensive in a way Sasuke had never seen, as if the other boy was scared that Sasuke would harm him physically. But Sasuke, with his own fears of being outed as bi, simply rolled his eyes._

_“Watch where you’re going, idiot,” he said, walking away from the half naked blond, completely hiding the fact that he totally wouldn’t mind kissing him again. There were other people in that locker room. He was lucky enough as it was that no one had seen what happened._

***

Around 3:00 pm, Sasuke received a text from Sakura.

_Hey, what time are you getting home? I have the evening off and no tests tomorrow! Why don’t we go out tonight? <3_

Sasuke considered how much he had left to do for the day. He had gotten in later than the previous few days, but he’d actually managed to be rather productive, and the team was right on track. Figuring it wouldn’t hurt to leave at a normal time for once, he texted Sakura back.

_I should be home around 5._

He was kind of relieved to receive the text because it clearly meant Sakura was not sick of him. But on the other hand, he wasn’t actually looking forward to spending the night with her. He couldn’t really explain why. He figured it was because the chemicals in his brain were all fucked up after drinking the potion last night.

In fact, his brain surely was functioning differently than normal. He’d spent his entire lunch period daydreaming about some of the times he’d spent with Naruto back in high school. Sasuke never daydreamed. He was notorious for being able to work undistracted for hours, but not even 24 hours after taking that love potion, his mind was being filled with images of the blond.

Going out with Sakura tonight would be a good chance to get his mind off of Naruto, and maybe even become a bit more interested in his own fiance somehow if at all possible. He finished up the last of his work for the day and headed home, not returning the wave that Suigetsu gave him on his way out of the office. He’d deal with his coworker later, since he had no clue how much Suigetsu knew.

“Hey babe!” Sakura said to Sasuke as he walked into their apartment. She wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him quickly, looking up at him with her bright green eyes. She must have gotten a good night's sleep, or had a really good day, Sasuke thought. He hadn’t seen her in this good of a mood in weeks.

“Okay, so I was thinking. Why don’t we do dinner and a movie tonight? There’s this new movie that came out last week that looks really good, and I figured I’d have to just wait for it to come out on Netflix or something, but I actually have time for once”! she said excitedly.

Sasuke wasn’t the biggest fan of movies, or movie theaters, but he figured a night out would be a good thing. Unfortunately, last night flashed into his brain at the mention of a movie theater. Their brief exchange was in the employee parking lot at the AMC. It’s not like he’d have to worry about seeing that Kabuto guy again if they went there for a movie, but the thought of going back so soon did make him a little nervous. Maybe he’d suggest a different theater in the area.

“Alright, what do you want for dinner?” Sasuke asked.

“Hm, I’m choosing the movie, so why don’t you choose dinner,” she told him.

“Okay. How about thai food?” Sasuke said, knowing that there would be plenty of vegetarian options for the two. The couple used to go out to restaurants more frequently in college, but these days they never took the time to go to a sit down restaurant. He was determined to have a nice night, something they hadn’t really had in a long time.

Since they weren’t planning on going anywhere fancy, Sasuke changed out of his work clothes into some more casual clothes. Sakura took the time to fix her hair, and the two left for dinner by 5:30. There was a mutual understanding that even though Sakura might not have any tests to study for, they still couldn’t stay out too late since she had classes early the next morning and Sasuke had work.

Dinner went smoothly. The two talked more than they had in the last week, mostly about their respective workplaces and Sakura’s classes. She told him about her night out at a bar the previous evening, which her coworkers at the hospital had convinced her to attend. Sakura had a lot more friends than Sasuke did, and she made new friends easily, so he wasn’t surprised that she’d been able to find a good group of work friends that she could go out with. He was truly glad that she was able to find time for fun, he knew she needed it.

He didn’t typically allow himself the same liberties, rarely going out with anyone these days. Most of his friends from college had found jobs in other cities or states, and even though he had friends at work, they didn’t go out often. Their relationship was mostly only professional.

Still, he did occasionally go out for drinks with Suigetsu and a few other coworkers, usually only after finishing up something big. Sometimes their boss even invited them all out to celebrate, but it certainly wasn’t a frequent event.

After dinner, the couple got back into Sasuke’s car, and he began to drive to the closest movie theater, a small one near the restaurant they’d eaten at (though Sakura didn’t know that he was taking them to this one for reasons other than its proximity). They arrived, however, to find that the theater wasn’t playing the movie Sakura had wanted to see.

“Let’s just go to the AMC, it's on the way home. I know that one’ll have it,” Sakura explained, directing Sasuke to drive to the theater he had just visited last night. His breath hitched slightly, but he followed her instructions. It’s not like he’d run into the drug dealers, who obviously just used the back parking lot as a slightly more obscured location for their transactions.

He pulled into the normal parking lot for customers and the two headed inside.

“You go buy popcorn while I get the tickets,” Sakura told him, walking off in the direction of the ticket counter. Sasuke walked in the opposite direction, already smelling the greasy butter of the movie theater popcorn.

When he walked up to the counter, he stopped in his tracks, seeing the familiar blond hair and blue eyes that he’d seen just last night. Standing in front of him, behind the food counter, was Naruto, wearing a black button up shirt, a red bowtie, and a nametag.

“How may I help you?” Naruto said, turning to say something to his coworker at the next register, not having noticed Sasuke yet. Sasuke watched the slight movement of his golden locks as he turned his head, how they fell over the boy’s forehead and almost into his eyes. He looked down to see Naruto’s hands, both grasping the counter, fingers drumming to the rhythm of the song playing softly over the speakers in the lobby. His hands looked strong, and rugged. The knuckles on his right hand looked red and bruised. Sasuke had never really cared about anyone’s hands, and yet, here he was admiring Naruto’s.

“Sasuke? What are you doing here?” Naruto questioned, after turning back and noticing the man in front of him. He looked nervous all of a sudden.

A similar question ran through Sasuke’s head. Why was Naruto here? Obviously he worked here, but he was also a drug dealer. Were all the employees here drug dealers, or was it just Naruto? Maybe the entire theater was a front for illegal activities. He’d heard of restaurants being fronts for gangs, so it was possible. He didn’t really know how that all worked. One thing he did know was that Naruto looked good in black.

“Buying popcorn, idiot, what does it look like I’m doing?” Sasuke retorted, his eyes snapping back up to meet Naruto’s.

“Oh, heh, what size? Can I get you anything else?” Naruto asked, his hand reaching up to scratch the back of his head.

“Large! And a cherry icee,” Sakura’s voice suddenly chimed in, her hand immediately snaking into Sasuke’s.

“Alright, coming right up! That’ll be $15.92,” Naruto said with a new, more peppy tone. Sasuke assumed he must’ve snapped into his customer service voice at the appearance of Sakura, because he hadn’t been nearly that enthusiastic when talking to Sasuke. In fact, he’d just seemed worried.

Sasuke reached into his wallet and pulled out a $20, silently cursing at how much movie theater food cost. Naruto took the bill and handed back the change. Sasuke took in a sharp breath as the other man’s fingers brushed against his own. Damn, that potion must have really worked. He’d never been so sensitive to such small touches, not even from Sakura. He prayed his fiance hadn’t noticed him acting weird in front of the man at the register.

Naruto quickly turned back to start gathering their food. Sasuke watched him, noticing that the blond kept glancing to a door behind the counter as if he were waiting for someone to walk in. Sasuke furrowed his brow. Naruto was acting pretty strange, he didn’t seem anything like he had in high school, except for the brief moment when he’d put on his customer service face in front of Sakura.

The blond set the popcorn and icee on the counter in front of the couple, no chance of their hands touching lightly again. Sakura grabbed the icee and Sasuke carried the popcorn for her after salting it lightly.

“Thank you!” Sakura called as they walked away. He heard Naruto call the next customer up.

“Did you know him? You called him an idiot. I know you don’t always like everyone but you’re not rude enough to randomly call some poor theater employee an idiot like that,” Sakura asked, reaching over and grabbing a handful of popcorn as the two took their seats in the middle of the dimly lit theater.

“Oh, yeah. Old friend from high school,” Sasuke said, not bothering to give any further explanation.

The lights dimmed even further, casting the room in darkness for a second before the large screen lit up and the previews started. Sakura proceeded to eat half of the popcorn before the actual movie even began playing. She had chosen a comedy, which was fine. Certainly not Sasuke’s favorite genre, but he did manage to actually laugh at a few of the jokes.

By time the credits rolled around, Sasuke was already getting tired. He hadn’t even stayed late at work, but it seemed his body was always tired these days. Maybe that was just part of getting older. He missed the days he could easily stay up till 2:00 or 3:00 am studying or partying with friends. Nowadays, he was always in bed by 10 or 11. Sakura yawned as they walked out of the theater into the lobby, clearly also tired.

“I’ll meet you at the car, I’m gonna run to the bathroom,” Sakura said. Sasuke wasn’t surprised. He hadn’t drank anything during the movie, but she’d drank an entire icee.

Sasuke walked out the front doors and along the sidewalk in the direction of their car. The parking lot had been decently full when they arrived, so they parked off to one side. By the corner of the building, he saw the faint glow of a lit cigarette draping out of the mouth of the blond man who he couldn’t seem to avoid the last 24 hours.

Naruto glanced up at him. “What, are you following me or something?” he asked, taking another drag from the cigarette.

“So seeing a movie at a movie theater means I’m following you?” Sasuke shot back, stepping forward so that he could see Naruto’s face better. The man looked tired. More tired than Sasuke.

“How did you know I’d be working here tonight?” Naruto asked, seeming rather annoyed with Sasuke’s presence.

“I didn’t, how could I have. Like I said, I was literally just here to see a movie with my fiance,” Sasuke responded. Naruto looked up at the last sentence, then down to see the silver band on Sasuke’s left hand. He snapped his eyes away quickly, focusing his gaze on one of the many cars in the parking lot.

“Congrats,” Naruto said sarcastically, spinning his finger in a circle in mock celebration. “I’m sure it’s going swimmingly,” he said under his breath, but Sasuke heard it nonetheless.

Sasuke looked down at his feet. It wasn’t like he could deny it, he’d literally just bought a love potion from the man. That was basically a direct admission that he was having relationship issues.

He looked back up at Naruto. His blue eyes seemed to be glazed over. The man looked… broken. Sasuke had no clue what happened to him after high school, but now he was curious.

The newfound horny part of Sasuke allowed his eyes to drift down to Naruto’s lips. They looked as soft as they’d been the day they accidentally kissed. Sasuke wondered what it would be like if it were to happen again. It would be so easy, he would just need to step forward, lift up the blond’s chin slightly, and bring their lips together. Maybe it could last longer this time.

Sasuke imagined pinning Naruto against the brick wall, taking the cigarette from his lips and attacking them with his own. His hand, reaching up to grab hold of those soft blond locks…

“You’re staring.” Naruto waved a hand in front of Sasuke’s face, and he was quickly drawn back to reality.

Sasuke didn’t respond. Instead, he reached forward and took the cigarette which rested in between Naruto’s fingers. He brought it to his own lips, breathing in. He didn’t smoke, but he had occasionally when he was younger. The smell always stuck to his clothes, which he hated, so he never made a habit of it. That and the whole lung cancer thing, and that he was dating a med student.

He handed the cigarette back and nodded, walking away toward his car to wait for Sakura, who was probably caught up in a line. In the back of his mind, he knew that if he stayed he might do something stupid. Or say something stupid. The more he avoided Naruto, the better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm leaving tomorrow to go on a trip for a few days, so the next chapter will take a few more days but it shouldn't take too long to get out. All of your comments on the first chapter mean so much to me, so thank you so much for the feedback! I hope this didn't disappoint :)  
> (tumblr: narutomemes)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took longer to get this chapter out! I'm back from my trip so I'll have more time over the next few days to work on it. I hope you like flashbacks!

Sasuke awoke the next morning feeling worse than usual. He hadn’t slept much. Instead, he was forced to lay awake in bed thinking of Naruto and ignoring the problem in his pants. It should have been so easy to ignore the man for the next few weeks, but last night he’d already managed to bump into him again at the theater. 

_No matter. I’ll just avoid that movie theater all together,_ Sasuke thought. It's not like they went to movies very often, they rarely ever had time to. If he wanted to take Sakura out again, they would just make other plans not involving the AMC theater or the sexy blond that worked at the food counter…

But a part of Sasuke didn’t want to avoid Naruto. He wanted to find another excuse to see Naruto, but had no clue how he’d do that. If he showed up at the theater again, Naruto would probably just get freaked out and think that Sasuke was stalking him. Plus, Sakura would definitely be suspicious if he suddenly wanted to go to another movie, something that Sasuke never suggested since he didn’t like movie theaters. 

There was really no way of getting into contact with Naruto without doing something suspicious or straight up illegal. Sasuke’s mind flashed to the night where he’d bought the love potion. That Kabuto guy didn’t say much at all, but he looked so sly and devious. And the way that he looked at Naruto was more than unsettling. 

Why was Naruto working with him? _Maybe…_ Sasuke thought, _maybe I could text Kabuto again, tell him it didn’t work, or I want to try something else…_

Sasuke knew it was a very bad idea to text Kabuto again. He was lucky he hadn’t gotten caught the first time. So far he had suffered no consequences for buying the love potion (besides becoming ridiculously infatuated with his former classmate), but he knew that if he continued to have contact with the drug dealer, even buying more product, there would be no avoiding consequences. That’s how it always worked. People always get caught in the end, or ruin their relationships, or end up dead. Sasuke had no interest in any of those things.

He only had interest in Naruto, and a growing concern for the man’s safety. What if Naruto is in trouble? Surely drug dealing was a risky business, and Sasuke couldn’t bear the thought of Naruto putting his life on the line just to make some money. Plus, it was probably Kabuto making most of the money and not Naruto. 

It all seemed so pointless to Sasuke. There were other ways to make money. Naruto clearly worked at the movie theater (legitimately, in addition to his non-legitimate side business). Why couldn’t he just pick up extra shifts, or get a second job elsewhere? The Naruto that Sasuke knew in high school never seemed like one of the kids at risk of getting into a situation like this. 

Sasuke took a deep breath. He knew he shouldn’t make assumptions about other people’s lives like that. After all, he’d lived a very sheltered life, growing up financially stable with both of his parents there. There was never any question about where he’d get money. Even though he’d had many jobs, he never had to worry about not being able to pay rent or afford food. He couldn’t even begin to understand the thousands of reasons people might get into situations like Naruto’s. Not that he actually knew anything about Naruto’s situation. 

After hours of lying in bed awake, he finally got up to get ready for the day, leaving a sleeping Sakura behind like most mornings. Pulling on a pair of gray sweatpants and his running shoes, he silently slipped out the apartment to go for a jog. Usually running was a good way to get his mind off of things and calm his nerves. 

He headed toward the bay so that he could run by the water. Sasuke quite liked the smell of the ocean. It reminded him of when he was a child and his brother would take him to the beach. The two would have sand castle building contests, and Itachi would try to teach Sasuke advanced martial arts. Both of the Uchiha brothers took karate from a young age, but Sasuke was always eager to learn more. He would pester Itachi all day until he’d cave and try to teach Sasuke something new and way above his level. 

As the two had grown older, Itachi had less time to spend with Sasuke, so he would often come to the beach by himself to practice. It had been years since Sasuke had actively taken karate lessons since he’d quit in high school to dedicate time to track, piano, and school. Still, he’d never completely let any of it go. 

These days he sometimes dedicated his time at the gym to boxing and working on his form in an attempt to preserve the years he’d spent learning karate. It was therapeutic in a way. Since Sasuke had never been great at expressing his emotions or talking about his problems, exercising had become his outlet to let out stress. 

His morning jog led him down to the pier, which was mostly empty of tourists but still had a myriad of workers bustling around, preparing for the day. Sasuke sat down on a bench overlooking the bay. The salty air drifted into his nose, and he smiled, closing his eyes. 

He sat there, breathing in the ocean air and letting his mind go blank for a few minutes. But he’d never been good at keeping out the thoughts for long, and soon they began to penetrate the flimsy wall he’d constructed.

***

_Sasuke could drive, but he never liked being the one to drive to parties. The chance of some drunk high schooler wrecking his mom’s car or throwing up on it was too high. Plus, some of his friends had their own cars. If they were going to insist he attend some shitty high school party, he would insist they drive him._

_He sat down and laced up his shoes, hearing a car horn beep twice in the driveway signalling that his friends were waiting for him. Sasuke went downstairs and entered the kitchen, giving his mom a quick kiss on the cheek to say goodbye. She was told so graciously that he was off to another study session, but didn’t question the fact that he wasn’t carrying his backpack or any of his books._

_“Okay Sasuke, have fun, study hard,” Mikoto said, pulling him in for a hug. Sasuke hugged her back, then shrugged her off._

_“Okay mom, I’m staying at Neji’s tonight. See you tomorrow,” Sasuke said quickly, rushing out the door. He looked back to see her waving through the kitchen window at his friends in the car. He pulled open the passenger door of Neji’s car and hopped in, nodding curtly to his friend in the driver’s seat. Sasuke and Neji had a strange friendship. They didn’t actually need to talk much to understand each other._

_“Sasuke! Are you ready for this fantastic night we are about to experience? The power of youth leads to such amazing things, like high school parties! I cannot wait to see all the lovely faces of our classmates as we bond over alcohol!” Sasuke looked behind him to see Lee and Tenten in the back seat. Lee had changed out of his typical green jumpsuit and into a ridiculous green three piece suit. He was way overdressed compared to the rest of them, but he didn’t seem bothered by it at all._

_“Hey Sasuke! Aren’t you excited? It’s been a while since we’ve all gone to a party together,” Tenten asked him. She was dressed in a pink tank top and jeans, her hair pulled into two buns on top of her head. Her bangs that usually covered part of her forehead were pulled back with a headband. Sasuke realized how beautiful she was, but also knew they would never date because she had a not so secret unrequited crush on Neji._

_“Yeah, I guess.” Sasuke sighed and looked over to Neji, hoping that maybe he’d say that Sasuke didn’t have to come if he didn’t want to, but the other boy just put the car into gear and backed out of the driveway._

_“Sasuke! Turn it up, I love this song!” Tenten called out from the back seat. Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned up the volume on the radio. Thnks fr th mmrs by Fallout Boy played through the speakers._

_“ONE NIGHT AND ONE MORE TIME!” The two in back sang along at the top of their lungs. The windows were rolled down so anyone on the sidewalk could’ve heard. Sasuke stuck his hand out the window, feeling the cool wind on his palm as they turned onto the highway to head across town to the party. It was at some senior’s house that Neji knew. Sasuke had only ever seen the guy a couple times in the halls at school. He didn’t have quite the budding social life that his friends did._

_“HE TASTES LIKE YOU ONLY SWEETER!”_

_Sasuke sang along in his head. He never sang out loud. The Fallout Boy song faded out and another song Sasuke didn’t recognize started playing. Clearly his friends knew it though because the backseat chorus never ceased._

_When they arrived at the party, the driveway and street were already full of cars, so Neji parked a couple houses down. They could hear the low pumping bass of the music coming from inside the large blue house. Neji led the group in the door, not bothering to knock. Sasuke watched as his friends began immediately mingling with people they recognized. Tenten and Lee were always very outgoing people, making friends with just about everyone. Usually Neji was a bit more reserved like Sasuke, but at parties like these he actually loosened up quite a bit._

_Sasuke looked around at the fancy interior of the house. High ceilings and a huge living room made for the perfect center of the party. Large speakers had been set up in a corner, and some guy stood next to them playing music from his laptop. He looked like a stereotypical DJ, wearing bulky headphones over his ears. He also had on dark circular glasses and a gray jacket with a popped collar, obscuring part of his face. Sasuke recognized him from school, but didn’t remember his name._

_On one wall of the living room was a giant sliding glass door leading to the backyard. Sasuke walked over to the door, peering out to see a large underground pool with bright blue tile lining the sides. A smaller group than inside was standing around the side of the pool, laughing and sipping from their red solo cups. It was like every other party he’d been to. People drank, smoked, talked, danced, and participated in gross PDA._

_Sasuke made his way into the kitchen that looked like it was straight out of an HGTV show with the tall white cabinets, marble counters, subway tile backsplash, and large island (Yes Sasuke sometimes watched HGTV with his mom, yes he thought the property brothers were hot, no he would never tell his friends this). Two large coolers labeled “beer” sat on the floor, and several bottles of vodka, soda, and lemonade littered the counter._

_He grabbed a cup and mixed together some vodka and lemonade. He didn’t make his drink very strong since he knew he didn’t want to get drunk, or even buzzed really._

_“Hey Sasuke!” Sasuke felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see Shikamaru holding a can of beer._

_“Hey, didn’t think you’d come. Thought you hated this kind of scene,” Sasuke replied. He’d invited Shikamaru and his friends earlier that week after learning about the party from Neji._

_“Yeah, well I didn’t think it was much of your scene either. It’s kind of a drag, but Ino and Chouji wanted me to come so I did.”_

_“I don’t hate parties that much, at least it’s something to do while I’m not studying.” Sasuke took a sip of his drink. Another group of people that he recognized walked in through the front door._

_“I guess that’s true. Not gonna lie, I don’t mind watching other people do stupid shit as long as it’s not me,” Shikamaru said. Sasuke chuckled._

_“Sasuke! I didn’t know you’d be here tonight!” Sasuke felt a pair of hands wrap around his waist from behind, pulling him into an awkward tight hug._

_“Get off of me, Ino.” Sasuke unraveled himself from the girl’s arms and turned to face her. When they were younger, Ino had a big crush on Sasuke and would always follow him around to get his attention. After a stupid party last year where they’d played spin the bottle and she’d had to kiss Sasuke, she came out as a lesbian, saying Sasuke was her gay awakening. Ever since then, she’s continued to pretend to be obsessed with Sasuke, just to get on his nerves. It didn’t bother him as much anymore though, knowing that it was all for show._

_“Please, you knew he’d be here. He invited us,” Shikamaru said, rolling his eyes._

_“Yeah, but you never know if Mr. Mysterious is actually gonna show up. He’s worse than you, Shika!” Ino grabbed Sasuke’s cup out of his hand and took a drink._

_“Geez, Sasuke! Are you just drinking lemonade? There’s like nothing in that. How are you supposed to have fun?” Ino exclaimed, heading over to make her own, much more potent drink. Sasuke copied Shikamaru, rolling his eyes at the blond girl._

_Ino and Shikamaru began discussing their own plans for the next week, and Sasuke took it as his cue to leave. He walked out into the backyard, looking for his friends. Immediately, he was met with the sight of an already drunk Lee doing a keg stand. The boy’s green suit jacket had been discarded, leaving him in a yellow button up and bright green suit pants. One of his shoes had fallen off and was floating in the pool._

_“Sasuke!” he heard his name, and suddenly a hand was in his hair, messing it up. “You were like totally awesome at the meet earlier! I can’t believe you can run that fast, I bet you’d even be able to catch up to me!” Naruto smacked him on the shoulder. Sasuke’s hands were drawn to his hair like a magnet, desperately trying to tame what Naruto had just made a mess of._

_“Please, there’s a reason you do cross country. You’re too slow,” Sasuke retorted, but he knew it was a lie. They’d had a meet just yesterday after school, and Sasuke had gotten first place in all of his events. But so had Naruto._

_“I bet you’re just too much of a coward to race me, I bet you don’t even do piano lessons!” Naruto said, remembering all the times Sasuke had denied Naruto’s requests to race and see who really was the fastest._

_“Hey Naruto! Come play never have I ever with us! You’re too sober!” Sasuke heard Kiba call from the sliding glass door._

_“Alright, I’ll be right there!” Naruto called back. “Sasuke, you should join us, you’re definitely too sober!” Naruto laughed, and headed toward the door to join his friend. Sasuke followed, but had no intention of playing. He just liked watching these games, they could be amusing. When he walked back into the living room, a small circle had formed on the ground. Sasuke decided to stand in the corner, arms crossed._

_“Wait how about we play truth or dare instead!” Kiba shouted._

_“We’re not in middle school, that shit’s lame!” someone else yelled back over the music._

_“No it’s not! It can be fun!” Kiba defended._

_“I’m with Kiba, let’s play truth or dare! I’ll go first, I choose truth,” Naruto joined in. Sasuke rolled his eyes, watching the group. He never understood that game, or any drinking game really._

_“Okay, Naruto, if you had to choose one teacher to fuck, who would you choose?” Kiba asked._

_“Ewww! None of them, that’s grody!” Naruto responded, sticking his tongue out. Sasuke started to walk toward the kitchen, not understanding how high schoolers could be so immature. Grody? Who says that?_

_“Come on, you have to choose someone,” Kiba pressed._

_“Alright, how about principal Sarutobi,” Naruto said, winking at Kiba. The whole room erupted in laughter, and a light blush made its way onto Kiba’s cheeks. Sasuke rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time that night and left the room._

_He took the last sip of his drink, then paused, considering whether or not he wanted another drink or just water. Usually he would go for water, but some part of him really did not want to be sober. Maybe it was fine if he had one more drink. He grabbed a can of beer from the cooler, and made his way back into the living room, this time sitting down on the couch a couple feet away from the circle of players._

_“Ino, truth or dare?”_

_“Dare, duh!”_

_“I dare you to give someone a lap dance!”_

_“Ooh, I can do that!” Ino said, rising from her spot in the circle and walking over to Sasuke. His eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen._

_“Shino! Play me something to set the mood!” Ino called out to the DJ. She began to crawl onto Sasuke’s lap, moving her body to the rhythm of Rihanna’s S &M that was now playing over the speakers. Sasuke kept his eyes glued forward and his hands at his side, not wanting his body to react in any stupid way, especially knowing that Ino was doing this all just to get a laugh. His gaze darted towards the small crowd that was now staring at him, and his eyes met Naruto’s. _

_The blond boy just laughed, his eyes squinting and his body doubling over as if Sasuke getting a lap dance from a lesbian was the funniest thing he’d ever seen. Sasuke scowled at him, letting Ino finish her performance. She returned to her seat and the whole room applauded. Sasuke willed himself not to blush._

_The game continued. Someone had to lick the toilet seat, another confessed to kissing someone they weren’t supposed to. Sasuke tuned most of it out. When he heard Naruto’s name, his head snapped up. He’d been vaguely interested in the boy ever since they’d accidentally kissed in the locker room a couple weeks ago. Sasuke wasn’t sure why, but whenever Naruto was in the room, Sasuke’s attention was drawn to him._

_“Naruto, I dare you to kiss the hottest person in the room!”_

_Naruto stopped laughing. He looked up at Sasuke and their eyes met. Naruto bit his lip and he rose. He stepped forward in the direction of Sasuke, their eyes still locked. Sasuke stopped breathing, realizing that Naruto was walking toward him. Did he think Sasuke was the hottest person in the room? Then, a smile spread across Naruto’s face, and the boy winked at Sasuke._

_But instead of continuing on the path over to the couch where Sasuke was sitting, Naruto suddenly turned and walked over to Kiba. Sasuke watched as he put on the same stupid grin he always had on, and puckered his lips in a cartoonish fashion._

_“Come here Kiba! You know you’re soooooooo hot! You gotta let me kiss you, Tenten did say to kiss the hottest person in the room,” Naruto cooed, grabbing Kiba’s face and planting a quick kiss on the struggling boy’s lips._

_“Gross, Naruto! You know what she meant!” Kiba said, wiping his face on his sleeve and spitting out, overdramatically._

_Naruto, looking like he’d just won a gold medal in the olympics, walked confidently and smugly back to his spot. He sat down in the circle, making eye contact with Sasuke and winking once again, leaving Sasuke feeling even more confused and interested in Naruto than he had been. He downed the rest of his beer._

_***_

Sasuke went to work after his morning jog. He spent the first half of his day holed up in his office, avoiding his coworkers. There was a department meeting scheduled after lunch that he wasn’t looking forward to. He’d rather just stay in his office all day and not see anyone. Sasuke was pretty hit or miss on whether or not he went down to eat lunch with his coworkers. On very productive days, he usually ate in his office while working. This was what he intended to do today, until Suigetsu poked his head into Sasuke’s office. 

“Hey, Sasuke! Come on down to lunch with us! We’ve missed you the past few days,” Suigetsu told Sasuke. He could see his other work friends, Karin and Juugo, standing behind Suigetsu and motioning for him to follow them. The other two weren’t on the same design team as he and Suigetsu, so he didn’t see them as often, but they’d all become friends through Suigetsu, usually sitting together at lunch and occasionally going out together after work.

“Alright, fine,” Sasuke relented after seeing the pleading faces of his friends. He got up and grabbed his lunch which he packed that morning, following his coworkers down to the employee cafeteria. It was a large room with a bunch of tables and chairs, and a cafe at the back where employees could buy food. The company was big enough to warrant having its own food services, but Sasuke always brought his lunch from home. 

Sasuke and Suigetsu sat down at a table while Karin and Juugo went to buy food. The two sat in silence for a moment before Suigetsu spoke. “So, not to eavesdrop on your business or anything, but I heard you met up with Kabuto the other day…” Suigetsu began, a knowing smile on his face. 

“Yeah. I did,” Sasuke replied. 

“Come on, don’t be so ashamed of yourself. How’d it go? Did you take it? Is it working?” Suigetsu questioned.

“Well, Sakura and I went on a real date for the first time in over a month.” Sasuke wasn’t technically lying, he just also wasn’t answering the question directly. He couldn’t tell his coworker he’d fucked up and was now head over heels for the drug dealer who’d sold him the potion. He’d never hear the end of it. 

“Sick dude! I knew that was what you needed!” Suigetsu slapped him on the back. 

“Do you know… how long it takes to wear off?” Sasuke asked, not knowing how much Suigetsu actually knew about potions and drugs. 

“Oh, you hoping to get another fix once it wears off? I could definitely hook you up, man. They tell you up to a month but it’s really only like two weeks. They just tell you that so you come back for more when you realize you’re not feeling it anymore. I gotta say, Kabuto is pretty damn good at marketing.”

“How do you know all of this?” Sasuke asked, genuinely curious as to how his friend could be so knowledgeable and connected in the world of drugs. 

“Oh you know, buddies from college got into it, I got into it for a while but stopped once I got hired here,” Suigetsu said cryptically. 

“By ‘got into it’ do you mean selling?” asked Sasuke.

“Well yeah, but you don’t gotta say it like some scared puppy, Sasuke! Geez, I didn’t think you were so innocent. But yeah, I sold for a while. Had to pay off student loans somehow, amirite? I still hang out with those guys even though I’m not technically part of the business anymore. They’re great, really. Hey, speaking of which, we’re having a little party tomorrow night, nothing big. Why don’t you stop by? My place, 7:30 or so. It’ll be great! Bring your girlfriend if you want,” Suigetsu offered, before digging into his lunch. 

“Yeah, alright, sure. Though I’m pretty sure Sakura will be working tomorrow night,” Sasuke agreed hesitantly. He didn’t like the idea of going to hang out with a bunch of drug dealers, especially not with Sakura, but if they were all like Suigetsu, then maybe it would be fine if he went alone. Maybe Kabuto would be there, and he could figure out some way to see Naruto again, but that was wishful thinking. He didn’t even know what he’d say to Kabuto to get information on Naruto. He would go, but only to try to have a good time with his coworker. 

When Sasuke saw Karin and Juugo walking back to their table, he put on his normal expressionless face to hide the slight worry he had about this party. He didn’t want them to overhear their conversation.

“Dude, lighten up. Karin and Juugo will be there too. How do you think I met them?” Suigetsu tried to reassure Sasuke, but now Sasuke was even more confused. His other friends were in on this too? How was he only just finding out about all of this, and what did they know that he didn’t? 

Sasuke, who was usually so confident and secure, was feeling more and more confused. There was too much to try to unpack at the moment, so he just went back to eating his lunch while his coworkers joined them at the table. 

***

It was a Friday, so Sasuke headed home early around 4:00 pm. Sakura usually didn’t work on Fridays, but she had texted Sasuke earlier to let him know she was picking up a coworker’s shift. He was somewhat relieved to be going home to an empty apartment. He really just wanted to relax on the couch and watch tv, and maybe drink a little. Basically, he needed a distraction. 

By the time he got home, his mind was already spinning with anxiety about Suigetsu’s party the next evening. He had no clue what kind of party this would be. Maybe it would just be a small gathering of friends, a civilized adult party where they talk about their boring adult lives. He could handle that. He hoped it wasn’t some other type of ‘adult’ gathering, but was pretty confident Suigetsu wouldn’t invite his coworkers to a sex party.

After changing out of his work clothes, Sasuke poured himself a rum and coke. He desperately needed to relax and get his mind off things. Sitting down on the couch, he turned on the tv and flipped through a few channels before settling on How It’s Made on the science channel. He found that this show was particularly good at distracting him since he didn’t have to worry about plot or characters. He could just become enthralled in how legos are made. 

One drink and two episodes in, he heard his phone buzz on the counter, alerting him that he’d received a text. Sasuke sighed and walked over to check his phone to find a text from Suigetsu. 

_Hey, wanna bring some booze over tomorrow night? Just a couple bottles, I got some here already._

Sasuke looked into the cupboard and realized his own stash of alcohol was getting low. _Might as well run to the liquor store tonight,_ he thought. He’d only had one drink, and certainly wasn’t feeling anything, but he decided not to drive. The liquor store was only a couple blocks away, and it was a nice night out. 

He grabbed his wallet and keys, and sent a quick text back to Suigetsu. 

_Sure, I’ll pick up a few things. What kind of party is this?_

Before he could even leave the building, he received a response. 

_Nothing big, just some friends from college. Maybe a little weed. It’ll be a good time, no need to get your panties in a twist. You seem like you need to let loose!_

Sasuke felt somewhat relieved. It didn’t sound like it would be anything crazy according to Suigetsu, and his friend wasn’t one to lie. In fact, he was probably right, this would be a good opportunity for Sasuke to let loose a little. Suigetsu knew as well as he did that Sasuke overworked and overstressed himself. 

The sky was still light out, but the air was cool. A slight breeze made Sasuke wish he’d worn a jacket, but the walk to the store was short enough. He walked briskly, not bothering to take in his surroundings. The streets were still busy with cars, but there weren’t too many people on the sidewalks. He quickly arrived at the store, bell jingling as he pushed open the door. 

The store was mostly empty, save for a bored woman at the register up front and a man in a giant purple winter coat in the wine section. It was nearing winter, but it never got cold enough to justify bundling up as this man was. Living on the coast kept the weather from ever getting too cold or too hot. 

He headed down one aisle, not really sure what he should bring. Somehow, he didn’t think this would be the type of party where they’d drink wine. He settled on a bottle of tequila and a bottle of rum to bring to Suigetsu’s, as well as some whiskey and a second bottle of rum for his stash at home. 

After the man in the purple coat ventured to the beer section, Sasuke went to browse the wine selection. Hoping to continue to put more energy and effort into his own relationship despite how jumbled his feelings were, he searched for a bottle of Sakura’s favorite wine. He remembered what Suigetsu had said about the potion only lasting about two weeks usually. He could deal with that. Once the two weeks were over, he could forget about Naruto and rekindle the spark between him and his fiance. Two weeks was much better than a month. 

Sasuke knew Sakura liked cherry wine, but couldn’t find her favorite brand. He reached down to settle for a bottom shelf brand when he heard the bells on the door jingle. Figuring the man in the coat must have left, he grabbed the bottle and stood up to head to the counter to check out. 

When he turned, he did not see an empty store, but instead a tuft of familiar blond hair in the next aisle over. Suddenly Sasuke’s heart started to beat faster. He knew he should ignore his instincts and just pay for his items and leave. Avoiding confrontation would be so easy. 

But something in his brain possessed Sasuke, forcing his feet to walk in the direction of the blond man. He had to speak to Naruto, had to see his face again. Sasuke had been pushing away thoughts of the other man all day, and here he just happened to run into him again for the third day in a row. It had to mean something, maybe there was a reason Sasuke had fallen for Naruto rather than Sakura after taking the potion. 

Sasuke didn’t believe in fate in the slightest, but surely this wasn’t a coincidence. He strided over to the other aisle, finally getting a full view of the man who had his back turned, looking at bottles of bourbon. He was wearing dark jeans, black boots, and a green jacket with fur around the hood. Before Sasuke could stop himself, he was walking over to the man. 

“Naruto,” Sasuke called out. The blond man in the liquor store turned around, revealing a confused look on an unfamiliar face. 

“Uh, I think you got the wrong guy,” the man said. Sasuke’s heart stopped as he realized that the blond hair belonged not to Naruto, but to a man with a pointed nose and brown eyes who looked to be a few years older than himself. A pang of disappointment seared through Sasuke’s gut. He’d seen the back of the man’s head and had been sure it was Naruto. 

Maybe the drug was stronger than he thought. He was much more obsessed than he’d admitted to himself. Perhaps this really would be a difficult two weeks. Sasuke mumbled an apology to the older man and went to pay for his own alcohol. Suddenly, he couldn’t wait for the distraction of Suigetsu’s party tomorrow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be interesting, I'm excited to finish writing it and put it out, hoped you liked this update! Also sorry not sorry for the fake out at the end :)  
> (tumblr: narutomemes)


	4. Chapter 4

_“Naruto,” Sasuke called out. The blond man in the liquor store turned around, revealing a confused look on an unfamiliar face._

_“Uh, I think you got the wrong guy,” the man said. Sasuke’s heart stopped as he realized that the blond hair belonged not to Naruto, but to a man with a pointed nose and brown eyes who looked to be a few years older than himself. A pang of disappointment seared through Sasuke’s gut. He’d seen the back of the man’s head and had been sure it was Naruto._

_Maybe the drug was stronger than he thought. He was much more obsessed than he’d admitted to himself. Perhaps this really would be a difficult two weeks. Sasuke mumbled an apology to the older man and went to pay for his own alcohol. Suddenly, he couldn’t wait for the distraction of Suigetsu’s party tomorrow._

***

Sasuke knocked on the door to Suigetsu’s party, holding a paper bag with a bottle of rum and a bottle of tequila tucked away inside. It was 7:45, fifteen minutes later than when Suigetsu had told him to arrive. Usually Sasuke was on time to things, but he considered it rude to show up to parties on time so he typically arrived 15-20 minutes late. This way he could also avoid being the first one to show up, which could be an awkward ordeal depending on the company. 

Dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a black shirt with the top two buttons undone, Sasuke looked more edgy than normal (which was saying something since regardless of what he wore he tended to give off dark and mysterious vibes). He didn’t know what kind of impression he should be making on Suigetsu’s friends, but he didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb by wearing what he usually wore to work. 

He’d been to Suigetsu’s house once before, but only for drinks with his other coworkers. Even though it had been casual, the four coworkers still kept up their professional appearances. 

This was different. This was more than having drinks with coworkers after a long day at the office. Though Sasuke didn’t quite know what to expect, he knew it would be nothing like the last time he’d visited Suigetsu’s quaint little townhouse. He suspected there would be nothing professional about tonight’s party.

Sasuke needed the distraction though. It had been a while since he’d gone out with his coworkers. It wouldn’t hurt if there were a few more people than normal, Sasuke could get along just fine with people he hadn’t met before. It also wouldn’t hurt if he let himself loosen up, drink a little more than usual, maybe smoke some weed. He'd see what happened. Sometimes he seemed reserved or withdrawn, but he was no prude.

The door opened to reveal Suigetsu wearing a white tank top and black jeans. He was holding a red cup in his right hand, and he stepped aside to let Sasuke in through the door. Sasuke immediately thought of the high school and college parties he’d been to. He hadn’t actually attended a real party since college since most adults his age just seemed to go to bars to have fun. 

“Sasuke! You’re here! Come on in, I’ll take that.” Suigetsu ushered Sasuke into the house, grabbing the paper bag of alcohol from his hands and kicking the front door shut behind the two. Sasuke stepped into the entryway and took off his shoes after noting that Suigetsu was also only in his socks. He typically found it rude to wear shoes in other people’s houses, but found it best to just copy whatever the host did. Some people were weird and wore shoes in their own homes. 

He followed Suigetsu into the kitchen which opened into the living room. Karin and Juugo waved at him from the couch, and he watched as Karin rose from her seat to join them in the kitchen. Two other people that Sasuke didn’t recognize were sitting around the coffee table in the living room. Music seeped into Sasuke’s ears, and he recognized a Tame Impala song playing over the speakers. The music was neither as loud nor as upbeat and pop-y as was typical of a college party, but he supposed Suigetsu didn’t want his neighbors who shared a wall to call the cops. 

Suigetsu added the two bottles to a small collection on the kitchen counter, before swinging his arms around Sasuke and Karin’s shoulders. Sasuke shrugged it off immediately but Suigetsu slumped it right back where it was, pulling Sasuke a little closer. 

“I don’t know about you guys, but I am so sick of work!” Suigetsu complained. Sasuke could smell alcohol on his breath and could tell the man was already a little tipsy. 

“God, me too! Stop talking about work, don’t ruin the night,” Karin said, before releasing herself from Suigetsu’s arm. “You don’t usually come to these Sasuke, how’d Suigetsu convince you?” she asked, as if Sasuke had known parties like this were taking place the whole time and was simply refusing to come. 

“Guess I just needed a night off,” Sasuke responded. He pulled Suigetsu’s arm off his own shoulder and grabbed a plastic cup from a stack on the counter, pouring himself a drink. Sasuke had no intentions of getting drunk, but he didn’t want to stay completely sober either. 

“Come join us, we were just talking about which Marvel movie is the best! Clearly it’s Guardians of the Galaxy, but Karin thinks it's Captain America! Tell her she’s wrong,” Suigetsu said as the three walked to the living room with their drinks. They sat down on mats on the floor by the coffee table. Sasuke noticed a man with silvery white hair and two dots on his forehead with his arm around Juugo, and another man with red hair in a chair next to the couch. 

“Not just Captain America, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is by far the best! Tell him, Sasuke!” Karin said. Sasuke rolled his eyes. He’d seen both and certainly did have an opinion on which was better, but wasn’t about to start a fight. 

“I prefer Batman,” Sasuke replied, taking another sip of his drink to hide his smirk behind his cup. 

“What?!” the two shouted in unison. “Batman is DC! We’re talking about Marvel!” Karin said, turning to hit Sasuke on the back of the head. 

“Dude! DC movies suck, how can you like those better than Marvel movies?” Suigetsu questioned.

“I just said I prefer the Batman movies, that’s all,” said Sasuke. He kind of enjoyed egging on his friends like this. 

“But there’s so many Batman movies and they’re all the same!” Suigetsu whined. 

“Well the Dark Knight is the best one, but all of the 90’s movies are also pretty good,” Sasuke replied. In truth, he really just liked Batman the best because he grew up watching the movies with Itachi. When he was younger, he’d wanted to become a superhero just like Batman.

“Ooh! Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Dark Knight is kinda hot!” Karin added. She whipped out her phone to google a picture of the actor. 

“How in the world do you find the Joker hot, Karin?” Suigetsu asked. 

“Well, I just think Heath Ledger is hot. Have you seen him in 10 Things I Hate About You? Total babe!” Karin responded with a squeal.

“Okay, but have you seen him in Brokeback Mountain?” the man with his arm around Juugo asked. Sasuke looked over to see the two leaning against each other. He hadn’t realized Juugo was gay, or into guys at least. His large coworker was usually pretty quiet, especially about his personal life. 

Sasuke thought about what the white haired man had said and smiled. He’d seen Brokeback Mountain in college, and he had to admit, Heath Ledger was pretty hot. But he personally thought Jake Gyllenhaal was hotter in that movie. Not that he’d say that out loud. 

“Sasuke! You’re smiling! You agree, don’t you? See, I told you, Suigetsu, Heath Ledger is totally hot!” Karin laughed and took another drink from her cup. The group laughed, and Sasuke laughed along. It felt good to be talking about nonsense and laughing with friends. Sasuke rose and walked to the kitchen to refill his drink. He was actually having fun. When he returned, the topic of conversation still had not switched.

“Oh, come on guys, Heath Ledger is not that hot. He’s got nothing on Leonardo Dicaprio,” Suigetsu said.

“Leo is hot, but he’s too bland! Orlando Bloom is way sexier,” Karin rebutted. 

“You’re right, but only as an elf in Lord of the Rings, other than that he’s blander than Leo,” Juugo joined in the conversation. Sasuke continued to drink, mostly just observing his friends as they argued about hot male actors. 

“What about you, Sasuke? What do you think?” Suigetsu turned and asked. Sasuke paused, not used to talking about his attraction toward men with really anyone, even if he’d come to terms with it since high school. But he felt… safe in this space. These friends seemed like they wouldn’t care in the slightest whether or not he liked guys, they only seemed to care about uncovering the truth about who the hottest actor was. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe it was that he’d finally found a group of people he was really comfortable with, but his initial nerves began to melt away. 

“Orlando Bloom is certainly much more attractive as Legolas,” Sasuke responded. Karin and Juugo cheered in triumph, while Suigetsu hung his head in overdramatic defeat.

“Okay, but who do _you_ think is the most attractive actor?” Karin asked. Sasuke thought for a moment. It wasn’t something he’d really thought about before. He didn’t watch a ton of movies, and he wasn’t the type of person to obsess over actors, male or female. 

“I’d have to say young River Phoenix, like in My Own Private Idaho,” Sasuke said slowly, still not entirely sure how his friends would react. He looked around only to see the smiling faces of his slightly intoxicated friends. 

“Wait, that doesn’t count, isn’t he dead?” Suigetsu asked.

“I think young Keanu Reeves in that movie is much hotter,” the white-haired man next to Juugo said. Sasuke turned to look at him, and received a warm smile. He didn’t even know the man’s name, but somehow felt like he was trustworthy. “I’m Kimimaro by the way,” the man said as if reading Sasuke’s mind. Sasuke nodded in response. 

A knock on the front door caused the conversation to halt. Suigetsu got up and left the room to answer the door, and Juugo and Karin moved on from actors to discuss attractive musicians. Sasuke walked over to the kitchen to get a glass of water and to see who had arrived. To his surprise, he saw another boy with red hair and Naruto step into the entryway. 

Sasuke almost dropped his now empty cup when he saw the blond haired man standing only ten feet away. He’d managed to stave off inappropriate thoughts about the man most of the day by keeping busy, but now his mind began to race. He’d been quite hung up over the blond after mistaking some other man for Naruto the previous night, and had done his best all day to ignore the disappointment after the awkward interaction at the liquor store. He knew it was a possibility that Naruto could be here tonight, but had thought it was unlikely. 

Naruto was wearing faded ripped blue jeans, a black V-neck T-shirt, and an orange bomber jacket. Sasuke looked at his face and noticed that the man was wearing what looked like red eyeshadow, and it looked damn good. He never thought he’d find another man in makeup attractive, but standing in front of Naruto like this left him speechless, breathless even. 

Suigetsu and the two new guests walked into the kitchen. Naruto and the red haired boy were laughing about something. Sasuke didn’t move from his spot near the counter, just watched the other men walk in until finally his and Naruto’s bright blue eyes met. 

The blond stopped laughing upon seeing Sasuke, but didn’t say anything. He was now only a few feet away, and Sasuke could see his face more clearly. His blond hair was messy but in a controlled way. The red makeup on his eyelids made his blue eyes pop. Sasuke was mesmerized. He continued to stare at Naruto for a moment, before snapping out of his trance. 

“Hey dobe, long time no see,” Sasuke said to Naruto. He didn’t really know how to talk to the man other than by being sarcastic and somewhat insulting like he had years ago in high school. Naruto’s eyes snapped back to meet Sasuke’s and the man furrowed his brow. 

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Naruto asked, sounding somewhat annoyed but a bit less hostile than he had been the last time Sasuke saw him at the movie theater. Sasuke didn’t understand why Naruto felt so uneasy around Sasuke these past few days. It was clear that Sasuke didn’t care what Naruto did and wasn’t going to hurt him or snitch on him. 

“Hey, you two know each other?” Suigetsu asked.

“Yeah, kinda,” Naruto responded. He broke away from his place next to the red haired man and walked over to where Sasuke was standing by the alcohol. Normally Sasuke would’ve moved out of the way, but he stood his ground, letting Naruto come right up next to him so that he could grab a cup. Sasuke had to stop himself from shuddering when he felt Naruto’s arm brush against his as the blond reached for a bottle of vodka. He watched intently as Naruto finished making his drink, looking the man up and down. A hunger began to rise in his gut. 

“Well, obviously you’ve met Naruto already. Sasuke, this is Gaara. Gaara, this is Sasuke,” Suigetsu introduced the two. The red haired man, Gaara, looked at Sasuke but didn’t say anything. He then shifted his glance toward the other red haired man in the living room and sighed loudly. 

“Really? You invited him?” Gaara said. 

“Chill, I always invite him. You two can get along,” Suigetsu responded. The new guest, Gaara, walked over to the older redhead in the living room and the two started bickering immediately. Suigetsu turned back to Sasuke. “They’re cousins. That’s Sasori in there, they’ve always fought like brothers,” he said before following after the cousins into the other room, leaving Naruto and Sasuke alone in the kitchen. 

Sasuke looked back at Naruto who was still standing rather close, not having moved after pouring himself a drink. Naruto looked Sasuke up and down, scrutinizing every detail. Sasuke couldn’t tell what emotion was displayed on the blond’s face, but it was softer than the last time he’d seen him. 

“Like what you see?” Sasuke asked. He smirked when he saw Naruto’s eyes dart aside. He couldn’t help but notice how cute the blond looked when he was embarrassed. He pushed away thoughts of stepping forward and pushing Naruto up against the counter and…

“You wish, I thought you would’ve outgrown being an asshole, but I guess that’s just who you are,” Naruto said, a devious smile appearing on his face as if he’d just said the most clever insult in the world.

“Oh please, you know you love how much of an asshole I am, that’s why you’re still here, isn’t it?” Sasuke said, shifting his feet so that he was directly in front of Naruto. He heard the blond’s breath hitch and watched as the man took a step back. Sasuke wasn’t sure why he was being so forward. 

“I’m here because _my_ friend invited me. Why are you even here?” Naruto said, now sounding defensive. Sasuke only smiled. 

“You mean the same friend that invited me?” he said. Sasuke took a step forward toward Naruto. He could practically feel the warmth radiating off of the blond. Naruto didn’t step back this time. The two stood there, close but not touching, just looking at each other. Sasuke could feel heat coming from more than just the man in front of him. 

“Naruto, Sasuke! Get in here, we’re gonna play a drinking game! I want to forget that work even exists!” Sasuke heard Suigetsu call from the living room and the subsequent cheering from Karin. He quickly turned, grabbing a bottle of Smirnoff Ice from the counter and joining his friends before an awkward situation could arise from his close proximity to the man he’d become so wildly attracted to. 

Sasuke sat down in the empty space on the couch. Soon after, Naruto entered with his drink and sat down next to Gaara on the floor by the coffee table. It seemed that the two redheads had stopped bickering, and the older one, Sasori, now sat on the other side of Gaara. 

“Okay, I don’t get drunk often but I’m so ready to get fucked up! No offense Sasuke, I know you’re leading our project at work but FUCK am I sick of it. Not to mention our stupid client, and-” Suigetsu started before Karin cut him off.

“We’re gonna play drunk jenga! I haven’t played in ages, but apparently Suigetsu had it lying around and never told me, so we’re playing! It’s the one where there’s challenges written on all the blocks,” Karin explained, grabbing a seemingly normal looking box of jenga from the cabinet underneath the TV. 

Naruto grabbed the container from her and spilled all the blocks out onto the table. Sasuke saw that they all had writing on them in sharpie. He’d never actually played this game but figured it wasn’t that different from other drinking games, which he was usually good at but didn’t typically participate in. Tonight he figured it would be fine. He was with friends, it was early, he had a high alcohol tolerance, he really wanted to see Naruto under the influence… there were numerous excuses he was giving himself. 

“You know, they were already stacked in the box, dobe. You didn’t have to make such a mess,” Sasuke said. Naruto became instantly flustered. 

“Well it’s better this way! It’s more fun if you get to stack them yourself,” Naruto defended, already stacking up the blocks as quickly and haphazardly as possible. The small pile he had constructed fell over and the blond looked down in shame. 

“You know, we can’t play if you knock them down before the game even starts,” Sasuke said, reaching down from the couch to start stacking them himself.   
  
“Psh, leave it to an architect to think he’s in charge of building shit,” Naruto said. For a moment, Sasuke wondered how Naruto knew he was an architect since he’d never told him that in the few brief interactions they’d had in the last few days, but then he remembered that Naruto was obviously friends with his coworkers and Suigetsu had literally just brought up their work. The two finished building the tower as the rest of their friends looked on in amusement. 

“Geez, you two fight like a married couple, I’ve never seen you like this, Sasuke,” Suigetsu said, laughing. 

“WHAT! We do not!” Naruto replied, his hands gesticulating like a madman. Sasuke watched and couldn’t help but feel fond. Naruto had acted strangely when he’d seen him earlier this week, but here he seemed just like he had back in high school. 

“Come on guys, let’s just play already! I’m too sober to put up with you two. You just met and you’re worse than Gaara and Sasori. I’ll go first,” Karin said, reaching to pull a tile from the bottom of the stack. Neither Sasuke or Naruto bothered correcting her on the fact that this was not their first time meeting. The first tile pulled read “Boys drink”. 

“Dammit! I go first and I don’t even get to drink!” Karin said, exasperated. 

“Chill, you’ll get your chance. There’s like hundreds of tiles,” Suigetsu said.

“Are you blind? There are not hundreds of tiles, there’s probably only like 60 or something. I thought you were supposed to be smart,” Karin said. The two always bickered like this, and Suigetsu had the audacity to say Sasuke and Naruto acted like a married couple?

“Okay, whatever. Who’s all in? Drink up cause that’s everyone except for me,” Karin said. 

“I think I’ll sit this one out,” Sasori said. The man rose and returned to the chair he was sitting in earlier. He pulled something out of his pocket that looked like a bird made out of wood. He then pulled out a knife and began whittling away at the wooden creature. It seemed like a bit of a strange hobby to Sasuke, but he didn’t really care. If these were Suigetsu’s drug dealing friends, they seemed a lot cooler than Sasuke had expected. 

The men remaining at the table all drank while Karin frowned at them. Sasuke was starting his third drink, but didn’t feel much yet. Naruto and Gaara had just arrived and were both on their first drinks. Back in high school, Naruto had been a lightweight. Sasuke wondered if this had changed at all in recent years. He wondered if Naruto still acted like a flirt when drunk. 

Suigetsu, who was seated to the left of Karin, took his turn next. He grabbed a piece from the middle of a row, earning a scolding from Karin about how the best way to play is to take from the sides so that the tower can grow higher. The piece read “oldest drinks”. 

“Oldest? That’s you, Juugo,” Kimimaro said. Juugo took a big swig from his cup. Sasuke didn’t actually know how old Juugo was, since he had a young face and hung out with people around Sasuke’s age. To the left of Suigetsu was Gaara. He pulled a tile labeled “Girls drink”. 

“Finally!” Karin screeched, taking a giant gulp from her Smirnoff bottle. Even though he didn’t see her as often as he saw Suigetsu at work, Sasuke really liked Karin. She was great at keeping the conversation going, which Sasuke was not always so good at, and she could be incredibly energetic and funny sometimes. 

Beside Gaara was Naruto, who reached for a tile on the very bottom row that would not budge. Instead of simply choosing a different piece to pull out from the stack, the blond kept pulling at the stubborn piece, making the whole tower sway. 

“Don’t knock it over, idiot,” Sasuke said, earning a sour look from the blond. Despite how much the stack of jenga blocks was wobbling, he managed to get the piece without completely knocking it over. “Blonds drink”. 

“Hey, that’s me!” Naruto said, taking a big sip of his drink. 

“Do I count as blond?” Kimimaro asked.

“Eh, if you count then I count,” Suigetsu said. 

“You both count, take a drink,” said Juugo. The two white haired men laughed and drank. The mood seemed to be lightening up, and Sasuke felt good. He looked down at Naruto on the floor as the man took another drink despite not being required to by the game. His eyes were bright and beautiful. Underneath his black shirt, Sasuke caught a glimpse of a necklace. Naruto never wore jewelry in high school, but somehow the necklace peeking out from underneath his shirt was… kinda hot. 

“You’re up Sasuke!” Sasuke heard his name and pulled his eyes away from the blond to see Suigetsu looking at him with a raised eyebrow. He ignored his coworker and reached forward to grab a block from the stack. “Blue eyes drink”.

“Me again?” Naruto said, again taking a rather long drink from his cup. “Hey Gaara, you gotta drink too, you’ve got blue eyes!”

“They’re green, not blue.”

“Eh, I think they’re blue,” Naruto said, leaning in closer to the redhead to get a better look. 

“Fine,” Gaara said, taking a drink. Sasuke wondered how the man even became friends with the rest of them. He seemed so quiet and sulky, but like a billion times worse than Sasuke. Naruto seemed to be good friends with him with the way they talked. How could Naruto, with his crazy erratic personality, be friends with someone so gloomy? Then again, Naruto did seem to have changed a bit since high school. There was probably a lot that Sasuke didn’t know about him. That didn’t stop him from being curious, however. 

The group kept drinking and playing, and the stack grew higher, but amazingly, no one managed to knock it down yet. Everyone was feeling the effects of the alcohol. Even the tower looked like it was drunk with how much it wobbled and swayed. At one point the turn order was reversed.

Now, Kimimaro carefully pulled a tile out, reading “Left hand only for one round”. A chorus of groans filled the room. They were far from coordinated with their right hands as it was. Someone was sure to knock it down. 

“Hey, that’s not fair! Sasuke’s left-handed!” Naruto said suddenly. Sasuke’s head whipped over to look at the drunk blond. “It should say play with your nondominant hand instead, otherwise it’s cheating!” 

Sasuke blinked. He couldn’t believe Naruto remembered such a tiny detail like that. He never even knew Naruto paid attention enough to know that about him. Something started to stir in his chest. And maybe a little in his pants. 

“Actually, dobe, I’m ambidextrous,” Sasuke retorted. He received another round of groans. “But I’ll use my right hand for this one if that’ll make you feel better.” It was Sasuke’s turn next. He managed to grab one without knocking the entire stack over. “Person with the highest body count drinks”. Everyone in the group looked around at each other. 

“Well, if we must spill, mine’s like 26 or something,” Suigetsu jumped in. 

“God that’s a lot, mine’s only like 10,” Karin said. She slapped Suigetsu on the back of the head, something she did frequently. 

“Like 8,” Juugo said.

“Probably like 9 or 10,” said Kimimaro.

“Are we talking sex or murder?” Gaara said deadpan. The room got silent for a moment before the whole group broke into laughter. Sasuke had no idea how to react to that, so he just took another drink. The redhead never did actually state his number. 

“Four,” Naruto said, quieter than usual. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. He didn’t know why knowing that number bothered him. They were adults, it wasn’t like it mattered what the man’s body count was. He knew he had no right to be jealous. They weren’t together and they never were. Plus, Sasuke had a fiance for Christ sake. Another part of him seemed… relieved… that it was lower than his own. 

The whole group looked over to Sasuke, who was the only one who hadn’t spoken. “Fifteen,” he said, not bothering to elaborate. He’d kinda gotten around a little at the end of high school and in college before he’d met Sakura, but his number wasn’t nearly as high as some people he knew. 

“Dude how’s it even that high? You’ve been with Sakura for like, forever,” a more than slightly drunk Suigetsu said, taking another sip since his number had been the highest. Sasuke just shrugged and returned the tile to the top of the stack. In the corner of his eye he saw Naruto make a face, but he couldn’t tell what the man was thinking. 

Naruto’s turn was next since the order was still reversed. He began to reach with his right hand, having already forgotten about the left hand rule, but begrudgingly switched when he heard Sasuke say “left hand, idiot.” The tower swayed more than it had the whole game, but some miracle prevented it from toppling. The block read “Never have I ever”.

Naruto smiled. “Never have I ever received a lap dance from a lesbian,” he said confidently, staring directly at Sasuke. The others looked at the two of them, confused. 

“I can’t say that’s happened to me, but I take it that happened to you, Sasuke?” Juugo asked. 

“Yeah, I guess. And you said I was cheating by being ambidextrous. Isn’t singling out one person cheating?” Sasuke said. He could feel that he was talking louder than he usually did, which happened when he was drunk, but he took another sip anyway. In the back of his mind he knew he should be drinking water to prevent waking up miserable, but he didn’t want to get up and walk past Naruto to the kitchen. Over the course of the game, the blond had slowly scooted closer to the couch. He was now leaning his back on the couch only a few inches from Sasuke’s legs, but he didn’t seem to notice. 

“It’s not cheating, it’s playing smart. You never get drunk quickly enough, S’suke,” Naruto said, leaning his head back onto the couch by Sasuke’s thigh. He suddenly had the urge to reach out and run his hands through the blond hair. It looked incredibly soft. 

“You just get drunk too easily, you lightweight,” Sasuke responded, clasping his hands around his drink to prevent them from wandering over to touch the man. 

“Hey, I am not a lightweight, you’ve just got some insane alcohol tolerance apparently!” Naruto said, turning his head to look up at Sasuke. All animosity in his words was gone, replaced with only friendly banter. Sasuke smiled down at him. 

“And by the way, that lap dance Ino gave you in high school was kinda hot,” Naruto said lazily. The blond closed his eyes and yawned. He stretched his arms out, letting one drape over Sasuke’s legs. Sasuke froze. Naruto was touching him. And he looked so fucking good.

“Come on, Naruto. You can’t be tired already! You always do this, why do you have to be such a sleepy drunk?” Suigetsu whined. Sasuke had seen Suigetsu drunk before, and he was the opposite of a sleepy drunk. He’d never actually seen Naruto like this though. When he saw Naruto at parties in high school, the boy was always loud and full of energy, and sometimes outrageously flirtatious with everyone. The blond was still loud, but clearly not bursting at the seams with pent up energy like he used to get when he drank. 

“I’m not tired, I’m just resting my eyes,” Naruto said, his eyes still closed. The man’s arm was still around Sasuke’s legs, and his head was leaned back on the couch cushion so Sasuke could see his face. He looked so peaceful. His blond hair fell over his eyes. Sasuke could see the red eyeshadow was slightly smudged on one side. He frowned when he saw the scars on both of his cheeks, still curious and worried about where they came from. 

Against everything he was telling himself in his head, he reached his hand out and lightly brushed a piece of hair away from Naruto’s eyes. Had he been sober, he absolutely would not have done that, but he was definitively not sober. Instead of pushing Sasuke’s hand away, Naruto’s eyes stayed closed, and his head moved closer to Sasuke’s thigh as the man shifted to be more comfortable. Sasuke settled his hand down on Naruto’s shoulder, ignoring the looks he was receiving from his friends, namely Suigetsu. 

Suddenly the group heard a bang as the front door opened and slammed shut. Sasuke heard footsteps, and then a man with silver hair and round glasses walked into the living room. He stood for a second, looking around from person to person before his eyes settled on the blond man half hanging onto Sasuke. 

“Naruto,” Kabuto said. “I believe you owe me something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, sorry it took a little longer to get this update out. This was my first week of summer classes and they're already kicking my ass. I liked writing this chapter, lots of dialogue which can be more interesting to read, for me at least (lmao most of the dialogue is based on real conversations I've had). Interesting things will definitely be happening in the next chapter!


	5. Chapter 5

_ Suddenly the group heard a bang as the front door opened and then slammed shut. Sasuke heard footsteps, and then a man with silver hair and round glasses walked into the living room. He stood for a second, looking around from person to person before his eyes settled on the blond man half hanging onto Sasuke.  _

_ “Naruto,” Kabuto said. “I believe you owe me something.” _

Naruto’s eyes snapped up and he jumped to his feet, leaving Sasuke’s legs feeling cold and tingly where Naruto had been draped over them. Everyone in the room looked over to the man now leaning against one wall in the living room. Naruto seemed to be in a panic, a look of terror plastered on his face, but no one else in the room seemed bothered by Kabuto’s presence. Sasuke was confused. He could see the blond man’s hands quivering by his sides, and noticed Naruto was in a defensive stance with his legs planted firmly on the ground. Part of him wanted to jump up in front of Naruto to protect him, but he stayed put. 

“What are you talking about, Kabuto? I gave you everything from this week,” Naruto said, now sounding completely sober. With the way his hands were shaking, Sasuke was impressed by how confident and cool the blond’s voice sounded when he spoke. 

“Relax Naruto, I’m not here to hurt you. I do believe you miscounted though. I’m missing $300. I’m simply here to collect on that. Besides, I was invited tonight, just like you were,” Kabuto said, glancing over at Suigetsu who just shrugged as if this was a normal occurrence. No one seemed to be as intimidated by Kabuto as Naruto was, which was odd because the two had appeared to work well enough together when Sasuke had bought the potion. That stupid potion which was the only reason he was here right now. 

Naruto patted his pockets and pulled out a worn black leather wallet, looking in it desperately to see how many bills he had. Sasuke noted that one side of the wallet had a green patch of what looked to be a frog embroidered into the material. He vaguely remembered the blond’s obsession with amphibians back in high school and almost smiled, but that thought was erased when he saw the look of worry and disappointment clearly indicating that Naruto did not have the sum Kabuto was after. 

“I know I counted right. I never count wrong, I gave all of it to you,” Naruto said, looking back up at Kabuto with a glare. “I don’t have $300 to give you.” 

Kabuto walked forward, clicking his tongue. The older man snatched the beat-up wallet out of the blond’s hands and rifled through its contents. He pulled out all of the bills, looking to be no more than $60, and pocketed them. 

“I don’t care if you counted wrong, or…” Kabuto said, handing back the now-empty wallet and brushing a piece of hair out of Naruto’s face. Sasuke frowned, not liking the idea of the creepy drug dealer touching Naruto when he clearly held power over him. He wanted to step forward and swat the man’s hand away from his friend (if he could call Naruto that), but he continued to stay seated. Despite the situation sobering everyone up a little, his decision making process was still obviously impaired and he’d probably just do something stupid if he interfered. 

“Regardless of the reason, I want the rest by monday.” Kabuto reached forward again, this time wrapping his arms around Naruto’s neck and undoing the clasp on the man’s necklace. Sasuke didn’t miss the way the man’s hands lingered on Naruto’s skin. It made his blood boil. Kabuto held it in front of his face and examined the crystal pendant. “I think I’ll keep this as insurance.” 

“Give that back!” Naruto reached to grab it, but Kabuto quickly retracted his hand and added the necklace to his pocket where he’d stored the money he took from Naruto’s wallet. 

“Naruto, don’t be so brash. You’ll get it back. I just can’t have you thinking you can hide money from me like this, even if it was an accident.” The man chuckled eerily and Sasuke shivered. He really did not like this man. 

“Now,” Kabuto turned to Suigetsu, completely ignoring the protests he was receiving from Naruto. “I do apologize for interrupting. I can’t stay long, but I brought this as a little party favor.” The man in glasses protruded a little baggy from his other pocket and tossed it on the coffee table in front of the host.    


Suigetsu didn’t look fazed in the slightest. In fact, no one did but Sasuke. He had no clue how his friends could just be okay with Kabuto barging in and demanding money from Naruto, whatever the reason was. And the way Naruto reacted to his necklace being taken, it obviously meant a lot. 

“Well, I’m gonna head to the bathroom real quick and we can all catch up,” Kabuto said, breaking the momentary silence. Sasuke watched as the man made his way down the hall, and heard a door quietly shut. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. 

“Why did you invite him?” Naruto practically spat at Suigetsu, now running his hands through his hair and pacing around the room. The blond looked tired and exasperated. 

“Dude chill, you’re sounding like Gaara. I always invite him, not my fault you lost money or something. I’m sure you’ll find it,” Suigetsu laughed and picked up the plastic bag from the table, examining its contents. 

“I didn’t —” Naruto came to a halt and glared at the white-haired host who had already begun another conversation with Karin next to him. Sasuke watched as Naruto took in a deep breath and turned around, heading back through the kitchen and to the front door. He heard a pause as the man put on his shoes, then the sound of the front door slamming shut for a second time that night rang through the small house. 

Sasuke watched as Gaara, the man who had come in with Naruto, moved to stand and follow his friend, but before letting himself think about what he had just witnessed, Sasuke stood abruptly and followed Naruto out the door before the redhead got the chance. He grabbed the blond’s orange jacket that had been discarded on the floor earlier that night and ignored the curious looks he received from his friends as he left, not really caring what they thought. After all, they hadn’t done anything about the altercation between Naruto and Kabuto. If they weren’t going to, Sasuke was.

He had no clue what he was going to say. Sasuke just knew that the look on Naruto’s face was nothing but fear and panic, and in turn it had worried Sasuke in a way he hadn’t felt before. He knew it was the damn love potion that was causing him to chase after his crush (if that’s what you could call it), but right now he didn’t care, he just wanted to see if Naruto was okay. He could deal with his own feelings the next morning. 

Sasuke quickly pulled on his shoes, not bothering to lace them up, then hurried out the door. The cool night air hit him, and a slight breeze rustled his hair as he looked for which way the blond had gone. To his right, he saw Naruto walking down the middle of the neighborhood road with both his hands shoved into his pants pockets. 

Checking his watch, Sasuke realized it was past midnight, which wasn’t that late but was certainly later than he’d been staying up all week. He stifled a yawn and walked slowly over to the blond. He cleared his throat, making his presence known, and Naruto jumped slightly. Sasuke watched as his hands came out of his pockets and the blond whipped his head around to see who had followed him. 

Putting his hands out in front of him to signal that he didn’t mean any harm, Sasuke then held out the orange bomber jacket to Naruto, noticing that the hairs on the man’s arms were sticking straight up from the cold. Naruto stared at it for a moment before taking it and slipping it on.

The two stood there for a moment, not saying anything. Sasuke didn’t know what he could possibly say to make the situation any better. He didn’t know anything about Naruto’s life since high school, and he didn’t want to blow the fuse on the already ticking time bomb that was likely Naruto’s temper after what he had witnessed inside. 

Sasuke watched the man in front of him, taking in every detail. The moon was almost full overhead, and the bright light it cast down somehow made Naruto’s eyes shine even brighter. His blond hair looked soft, but slightly disheveled. He remembered the way it had felt against his fingers when he’d brushed it out of the man’s face not even ten minutes ago. His fingertips still tingled slightly from the touch. Suddenly, the urge to step forward and run his hands through the blond locks and pull him in for a kiss overwhelmed Sasuke. He blinked to clear his head of the thought before it could turn into anything else. He had a fiance, he couldn’t be thinking of things like that. 

“Can I take you up on that offer to race?” Sasuke said, finally breaking the silence. 

“What?” Naruto replied, looking dumbfounded. Clearly, the blond had been expecting Sasuke to say anything but that. Sasuke smiled at the way Naruto’s emotions were so easily readable on his face.

“A race. You, me. Running. You know, with our legs,” Sasuke teased. “Come on, I know a place.” He started to walk off, not waiting for a response. He wasn’t even sure if the blond would follow him until he heard footsteps catching up to him on the pavement. 

The two walked in silence for a few blocks as Sasuke led them to a beach down the road. It was a public beach that was open 24 hours a day, but Sasuke had been to it a couple times at night and it was typically empty, save for a few teens sometimes who seemed to think it was rebellious to be out late. 

Sasuke again considered saying something, but all thoughts of what he could possibly say to the blond were washed away when he felt Naruto’s hand brush lightly against his as they walked side by side. As if he’d just stuck a fork in a power outlet, a shiver was sent through his whole body before disappearing in a fraction of a second, leaving Sasuke’s heart racing and his cold hand aching for more touch. The voice of reason, normally at the forefront but now quiet and pushed back to the depths of his mind, yelled at him to not act on his emotions since not only was he still a little drunk, the chemicals in his brain were still altered since taking the love potion. 

When they arrived at the beach, Sasuke leaned up against a fence and pulled off his shoes and socks, leaving them in the sand. Naruto squinted his eyes at Sasuke, but followed suit, leaving his shoes right next to Sasuke’s. 

Naruto reached his hand back to scratch his head, letting a sheepish grin appear on his face. “Heh, uh, I’m probably a little rusty at this. I haven’t run much since high school.”

“Well if you’re as fast as you always said you were, that shouldn’t be a problem.” Sasuke let his eyes rake over the man in front of him. They both stood barefoot in the sand, bathed in the yellow light of the moon reflecting off of the water. Naruto was shivering, and Sasuke could hear the man’s teeth chattering from two feet away. 

“You know, these things are more effective if you use the zipper.” Before Naruto could react, Sasuke stepped forward and zipped up Naruto’s jacket which had been wide open. He could feel Naruto’s warm breath on his face for a second, before he stepped back, not wanting to linger and make the blond uncomfortable. 

“Yeah, well, I didn’t zip it on purpose. It looks better that way,” Naruto said, a blush appearing on his cheeks, but he didn’t bother unzipping it. 

Sasuke scoffed and turned to look at the neverending coastline. It was one of the reasons he’d never moved away from California, despite receiving job offers from numerous places in the country. Something about being outside at night and feeling the wind on his whole body made him feel powerful. It was a peace he’d never experienced anywhere else in his life. 

“Alright, how about first one to that dock down there wins,” Sasuke said and pointed to a dock about 500 meters away. He knew he was choosing something close because Naruto could outrun him if they decided on a longer race. Was that cheating? Probably, but Sasuke didn’t care. Plus, in their intoxicated state they probably couldn’t go much further than that anyway.

“Okay, but loser has to buy the winner a hangover meal in the morning. I can already tell this is gonna be a bitch when I wake up,” Naruto said, rubbing his temples with his fingers. Sasuke chuckled, slightly excited at the idea that he’d have another excuse to see Naruto. 

“Deal,” Sasuke responded, now smiling. If Naruto hadn’t run since high school, Sasuke could totally beat him. He’d been good at going to the gym and staying fit, even going for early morning runs almost every week. He knew he had this in the bag. 

Naruto began drawing a line in the sand with his foot, and the two lined up behind it. “On the count of three,” Sasuke said. 

“Wait, on 3? Or after 3? Like 1, 2, 3! Or 1, 2, 3, Go!” Naruto questioned. The smile on Sasuke’s face grew wider. 

“After 3, on Go.” The two nodded at each other. Sasuke shifted his legs so that he would have a good take off in the sand. Naruto did the same, and the two counted together. 

“Go!” Naruto shouted, and they both took off sprinting down the beach, kicking up puffs of sand behind them. Sasuke’s feet pounded and propelled him forward. Immediately, he had the lead on Naruto. He felt the familiar rush of endorphins fill his body as he ran. His calves began to ache with how hard he was pushing himself, and he loved it. Even though he continued to run in his adult life, he never full-on sprinted like he did in high school, and part of him missed it. 

He was nearly three quarters of the way to the dock when he looked over to see Naruto gaining on him.  _ Fuck _ , Sasuke thought. He must be rusty, and the sand wasn’t doing anything for his speed. Another sharp pain in his calves made him realize that he hadn’t stretched, and he was certainly going to regret that mistake in the morning. 

With only fifteen or so feet before reaching the dock, Naruto pulled ahead for the win. Sasuke watched as the blond stopped, bending over to rest his hands on his knees after reaching their destination. Both of them took a moment to catch their breaths. Sasuke paced with his hands behind his head to open up his chest for better oxygen flow while Naruto leaned against one of the wooden posts sticking up from the dock. 

After a moment, Naruto turned to Sasuke, beaming. “God that was awesome! I haven’t done that in forever. You shoulda see the look on your face when I passed you! God, you were always so smug about how fast you were,” Naruto said, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. Sasuke looked away to avoid staring. His chest felt tight from looking at the blond’s beautiful smile. 

“Yeah, well that’s just because I didn’t stretch beforehand. Otherwise I obviously would have won,” Sasuke said. He sat down in the sand and began to stretch his legs, hoping for retroactive relief. 

“Oh please, you just don’t want to admit I beat you. Is that why you always refused to race me? I bet you were just scared of losing,” Naruto said, his smile still making Sasuke’s heart flutter. Sasuke hoped this helped distract Naruto from worrying about his fight with Kabuto earlier. He winced when he remembered the panicked look on the blond’s face. 

“I wasn’t scared of losing, I was just busy. Some of us had lives,” Sasuke said. He laid back on the sand after realizing no amount of stretching would prevent how sore his muscles would be later. Putting his hands behind his head, he looked up at the moon overhead and breathed in deep. He never felt as alive as he did after a good run. 

“Ha, well clearly you no longer have a life since you’re here now,” Naruto said, humming quietly to himself. Sasuke looked over to see Naruto laying down beside him. He frowned, not understanding what the blond meant by his comment, but didn’t say anything. He was too enthralled by the view of Naruto only a foot away. The blond had taken off his jacket and was using it as a pillow. His tan arms were stretched out behind his head, and Sasuke could see the taught muscle of his biceps. Clearly Naruto, like Sasuke, had not given up on his physique after high school. 

Naruto yawned and rested one of his arms over his eyes. The man looked tired. Sasuke remembered hearing Suigetsu say he was a sleepy drunk nowadays. He looked so soft like this, and Sasuke wanted nothing more than to hold him, but he pushed those thoughts away like he’d done all week. 

The two laid there like that for several minutes, not speaking. Sasuke listened to the quiet breathing next to him as he gazed at the sky. He could see a few stars, but not many since they were still close to the city and all of its lights. 

“Why are you here?” Naruto said so quietly that Sasuke wasn’t even sure that he heard him. He looked over at the blond who was still laying with his arm covering his face. He could see that Naruto’s cheeks were tinged pink, and his lips were parted slightly, breathing in the cool air. 

“We just ran over here and then I laid down, same as you,” Sasuke replied, though he knew that wasn’t the answer Naruto was looking for. 

The blond sighed and Sasuke could see the light puff of his breath as he exhaled. “Why are you actually here, Sasuke? Why did you follow me after…” His voice trailed off into almost a whisper, and he never finished his sentence. 

Sasuke didn’t really know what to say, since he didn’t actually know why he chased Naruto out of Suigetsu’s house. He looked back up at the sky, not wanting Naruto to see him blush, even though the blond wasn’t even looking at him. 

“I don’t know,” Sasuke sighed. “You seemed upset.” He heard Naruto snort at his comment. 

“No shit, I was upset, you bastard.” Sasuke decided to sneak a glance over, only to jerk his eyes away immediately when he found that Naruto was now on his side, propped up on his elbow, watching Sasuke. 

“Well, anyway, thanks. I needed this, the distraction.”

“Will you be able to pay him back by Monday?” Sasuke asked, trying to mask the concern he felt with an indifferent tone. 

“Hopefully. I’ve got some money stashed somewhere that I’m hoping will cover it. I know he’s wrong though, I didn’t miscount. He’s probably the one who misplaced the money and Orochimaru is on his ass so he’s blaming me,” Naruto said, yawning again. 

“Orochimaru?” Sasuke questioned. He’d learned about Kabuto and a few various other names through Suigetsu, but had never heard of anyone called Orochimaru. 

“Oh, he’s uh like our supplier I guess. Top of the food chain kinda guy. Huge creep, and a dick too. He’s totally got Kabuto wrapped around his finger,” Naruto replied, letting out a laugh that sounded forced. 

“If he and Kabuto are assholes, why not just stop?” Sasuke blurted out, then immediately regretted asking. That’s clearly not the type of thing you ask someone like Naruto. Everyone surely had their own reasons and he most likely didn’t want to talk about them. 

“It’s not that simple. I can’t. Not yet, anyways,” Naruto said quietly. Sasuke nodded in response, not knowing how to respond. A not-so-comfortable, but not completely awkward silence settled between the two as they continued to lay next to each other in the sand. About a thousand questions were now running through Sasuke’s mind about the blond, but he didn’t voice any of them. 

When he heard snoring next to him after a few minutes, Sasuke again turned to look at Naruto. The man’s mouth was wide open and a small trail of drool was trickling down one side of his face. Sasuke couldn’t help but smile at how cute and idiotic he looked. 

Naruto’s T-shirt was riding up slightly, and Sasuke caught a glimpse of his bare midriff. He couldn’t help but notice the toned lines forming a V that disappeared into the waistband of Naruto’s boxers which were sticking out slightly from under his jeans. 

Heat began to pool in Sasuke’s gut (and maybe also his groin) as he stared at Naruto’s body. Just like in high school, every part of Naruto seemed slim but toned. Whatever being a drug dealer (and movie theater employee, Sasuke remembered) entailed, he clearly still made time to work out, and damn did it pay off. 

He began to fantasize about running his hands up and down Naruto’s chest when the man shifted in his sleep. His shirt rode up even further, revealing a big green and yellow bruise on the man’s side. Sasuke frowned, and all the arousal he had been feeling was instantly replaced with concern. 

What had Naruto gotten himself involved in since high school? Was he in danger? Suddenly Sasuke wanted nothing more than to help the man get out of whatever situation he was currently in, but he had no idea how. And he doubted Naruto would accept any help. 

He tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness rushed into his head. He laid back down, cursing himself for drinking so much. Even though he had worked up a high tolerance, needing to drink a pretty significant amount to get drunk, once he finally was drunk it took a lot longer for his body to get sober again. It was a blessing and a curse, but mostly a curse, which is why he tended not to drink much. 

His mind was spinning from the alcohol and from worrying about Naruto. He had no clue how he was able to race all the way over here just fine, because now he felt like he was going to throw up. Sasuke rolled over onto his side so that he was facing away from Naruto, clutching his stomach and trying to still the turbulence in his head. 

Sasuke hadn’t felt this sick from alcohol in years. He wondered if maybe the love potion was affecting his body’s reaction to alcohol, but he pushed away those thoughts. Every time he remembered taking the drug he felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for his decreasing interest in Sakura, as well as concern that he’d lead Naruto on, only to forget about him once the potion wore off. 

Everything had become so complicated since he’d texted Kabuto and taken the stupid drug, and he wished he could go back to earlier this week and throw away the paper with the dealer’s phone number. But would that really make his life any better? He’d still be fighting with Sakura and avoiding his lack of feelings for her. They’d still be spending most of their time together dead asleep, only for him to wake up early and stay late at work. 

At least his life had certainly become more interesting since drinking the potion. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this many emotions in one day. Emotions were usually something he ignored, but he had been feeling so many things all at once this week. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but it was certainly new. 

The sound of the waves crashing against the shore slowly eased his mind and his stomach. He shut his eyes and listened to the water and the crickets chirping softly in the thickets of grass up by the road. He began to feel drowsy and settled deeper into the sand, carving out a cozy little nook. Who knew a public beach at 2:00 am could be so comfortable?

Before he knew it, he was drifting off, a small smile on his face upon hearing one last little snore from Naruto behind him as he slipped into a dreamless sleep.

***

Sasuke awoke abruptly when he felt something smack him in the face. 

“Go back to sleep, Sakura,” he said sleepily. Without opening his eyes, he peeled a heavy arm off of his face and tossed it back toward the body it was attached to. He rolled over and felt something sharp pressing against his leg. His eyes shot open to find a sleeping Naruto only inches away. The man’s eyes were closed tight, and his nose was twitching slightly as if he was dreaming. 

Sasuke dug a rock out from underneath his leg and looked around. The sun hadn’t quite risen yet, but he could see a little bit of light on the horizon signalling Sunday morning had arrived. A shiver ran through his whole body, and he realized how cold he was. A white cloud escaped his lips as he let out a deep breath. It swirled in the air for a second before the ocean breeze swept it away. 

The pounding in his head told him he had clearly drank too much last night, and the tight pain in his calves reminded him that he should never skimp on stretching. Sasuke looked back over at the sleeping blond who was now curled up in a neat little ball. Sometime during the night he had foregone his pillow to use his jacket as a blanket instead. 

A screeching seagull swooped down and landed a few feet away on one of the dock posts. The loud bird looked at Sasuke with its beady black eyes and let out another shrill squawk before taking off down the shore. Sasuke remembered racing here after attempting to distract Naruto, but he didn’t remember falling asleep on the beach. 

He sat up and leaned back onto his hands. A couple that was walking up by the road gave him a funny look, so he sent them one of his menacing glares in return. They quickly looked away and continued on their path. 

The sand beneath him was cold. He could feel every grain underneath his hands, and was acutely aware of its presence, clinging not only to his arms where they had been in contact with the ground as he slept, but entangled in his hair and underneath his clothes as well. Sand flew in every direction as he shook his head, trying desperately to get it all out. He didn’t want to know how bad he looked at that moment. 

A wave of nausea coursed through him, and he knew if he didn’t drink some water soon he’d throw up. He turned back to Naruto and grabbed his shoulder, giving him a slight push to try to wake him up. The blond didn’t budge.    


“Get up,” Sasuke said, now shaking the man to try to wake him. 

“What do you want?” Naruto grumbled before turning away from Sasuke to try to fall back asleep. Sasuke rolled his eyes. 

“Naruto, get up,” Sasuke repeated. 

“Five more minutes, Gaara.” Almost immediately, Sasuke heard snoring coming from the blond. It was quite impressive, he had to admit, how quickly Naruto could fall asleep. He recalled a tactic his brother had used to wake him up once, and he reached out and grabbed the man’s shoulder, rolling him onto his back. Before Naruto could turn away again, Sasuke grabbed hold of Naruto’s nose, pinching to cut off the air flow. 

Naruto started sputtering and his eyes flew open. “God, what the fuck! Let go of me!” Naruto said, shooing Sasuke’s hands away. He brought his own hands to his face and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He squinted at Sasuke, letting his eyes refocus. 

“Sasuke? What… where are…” he said, looking around. Sasuke watched the realization spread on his face as the blond took in his surroundings. The man gripped his stomach and sat up. Sasuke could tell he wasn’t the only one who felt like he was going to throw up. 

“Oh god, I feel like shit,” Naruto groaned. He grabbed his jacket off his lap and pulled it back on, zipping it up quickly. 

“I see you learned how to use a zipper,” Sasuke commented, watching Naruto’s hands as they moved. He considered how strong they must be, and what they could do if put to use in other situations. 

“Fuck off, asshole. Why did you let me fall asleep here? Now I have a crick in my neck, and a raging hangover,” Naruto said. “Hey wait! You owe me a hangover meal, let’s go now! Can we go to Denny’s? I want eggs and bacon and pancakes. Oh god I could eat so many fucking pancakes right now!” he rambled. Sasuke turned his head toward the ocean to prevent Naruto from seeing the smile that was creeping across his face. 

“Sure, but I don’t know how the hell you could be that hungry this early in the morning,” Sasuke replied, finally working up the courage to stand up now that his stomach had settled a little. 

“Awesome!” Naruto said. The blond jumped to his feet, then teetered for a few seconds before finding his footing in the sand. He shot a big toothy smile at Sasuke, and the two walked back to find their shoes before heading back into the city that was just starting to wake up. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops sorry this is a week late, my bad. Online classes are kinda kicking my ass, but I made it through this week and managed to write some. Hope you like it!

**Author's Note:**

> New fic! Had a dream about this and had to write it, hope you enjoy!  
> (Tumblr: Narutomemes)


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